WESTLOCK — Members with the Westlock Economic Region (WER) committee, from the three partner municipalities — the Town of Westlock, Westlock County and Village of Clyde, presented an update to local businesses at the June meeting of the Westlock and District Chamber of Commerce.
The Westlock Economic Region (WER) officially launched April 26, with a ribbon cutting, dignitaries and guests in attendance, and is moving forward with their regional approach to economic development.
“We recognized a number of years ago … that our efforts in economic development could not exist in isolation,” said Westlock councillor and committee member, Murtaza Jamaly. “We as the Town of Westlock, as the County of Westlock, as the Village of Clyde, could not have three different economic development strategies that competed or acted in opposition to a coordinated approach.”
The tri-municipal partnership is funded by all three municipalities Jamaly told businesses at the lunch-time meeting, and pointed out the region’s branding and strategy is focusing on agriculture, which is a key sector for the town, village and country.
“(When) we do this work, I’m not here representing the Town of Westlock, I’m here representing the Westlock Economic Region and I have a responsibility as that representative to ensure that I am doing justice to the fact that economic development in the Village of Clyde or in Westlock County, is also economic development for the Town of Westlock,” he said.
Westlock County councillor Isaac Skuban and Village of Clyde Mayor Charis Aguirre joined Jamaly for the presentation, as did Westlock County economic development manager, Tom Koep.
Since the launch, the committee and three municipalities have been working to increase the amount of information available on the WER website www.investwer.com to help create an economic development hub for the region, noted Jamaly, pointing out the next steps involve becoming brand ambassadors for the region. That includes strengthening relationships, attending conferences, and ensuring they work with Invest Alberta and Invest Canada, as well as site selectors “as a coordinated approach to ensure that we can find those potential investors that we can attract to our region,” said Jamaly.
“This is more than just a static brand, this is a living brand. We will be pushing it out year after year after year,” he added, noting while it represents a team strategy across the three municipalities, it extends well beyond that.
“We are looking at expanding our network to ensure that everybody can speak with common language and be successful at economic development in the region.”
