The Westlock and District Chamber of Commerce won a 2024 Chamber of the Year award from the Alberta Chambers of Commerce.
The Westlock chamber won in the category of chambers with 50-99 members.
“There would be quite a few chambers in the province of that kind of size so it's definitely a feather in our cap and we're excited about it,” said chamber president Graeme Harrington the chamber’s monthly board meeting on June 17.
The award comes at a time of change for the chamber as they look for a new president and vice president with Harrington and vice president Paul Olsen announcing their intentions to step down by the next fiscal year.
The chamber is also looking to collaborate with the town’s new Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) which aims make a broad plan for economic development in Westlock over the next five years.
The CEDS is currently in its data gathering stages as they seek input from business owners, stakeholders, students and residents in the Westlock area on market trends and economic conditions.
This includes the launch of the BREWD (Business Retention Extension Workforce Development) survey which aims to gather input from local businesses on support and funding needed for the community.
The CEDS also conducted over 150 surveys for Westlock students where they seek to understand youth priorities in the community and if young people are willing to return to the community following post-secondary education.
The final data gathering segment of the CEDS this summer will be two think-tank workshops where any Westlock community members can participate and give feedback on the biggest needs for the community.
“We need to see if the community actually wants to scale or are we seeing ourselves just being a small community not really looking into increasing in size?” said Town of Westlock Economic Development Officer Davis Prizgintas.
