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Investment Attraction Action Plan, Investing In Our Future
Business Visitation The Municipal District of Bonnyville started an ongoing business visitation program beginning in the Spring of 2023. The purpose of a business visit is to allow the M.D. Economic Development Specialist to meet with, and get to know, local business operators and their businesses. The business visit is a crucial component of a business retention, expansion, and attraction (BREA) program and helps identify any hurdles, challenges, or opportunities facing local businesses while helping address those issues. The BREA program can assist with retaining or increasing local jobs, preserving or increasing the local tax base, increasing local property values, enhancing the image and confidence level of the M.D. business community as a place to invest, and maintain or diversify the economic base. Information gathered during a business visit can provide the data and market intelligence that helps our community in its efforts to attract new companies and foster the creation of new businesses. It can also provide business data from the local economy that can help with supply chain issues and lead generation to connect M.D. businesses with bidding opportunities. Business visits yield information to increase competitiveness in the wider marketplace by identifying import and export activities and working with agencies such as Invest Alberta and Invest in Canada. Visits also help support business operators with site selection and pathfinding for project specific planning and permitting, grants, and investor connections.
The Business and Industry Growth Strategy (BIGS) identifies the Investment Attraction Strategy as one of its foundational activities. The purpose of the investment attraction action plan is to provide the analysis, strategy, and tools required to attract desired and complementary investment to the M.D. of Bonnyville. This is based on information identified in the 2020 Regional Economic Development Plan:Technical Report. The following sectors have been identified as the focus of the investment attraction action plan: energy, proteins and agriculture technology, tourism and quality of place, renewable technologies, and Canadian Armed Forces procurement. The goal of the investment attraction action plan is increased investment, a stronger tax base, increased employment opportunities, and the development of clusters and value chains which will diversify and strengthen the local economy. The strategy will ask the following questions – where are we now, where do we want to be, and how do we get there? The action plan will: 1. Identify the community’s competitive advantage. 2. Undertake a gap analysis. 3. Analyze and develop a target industry list. 4. Identify future investment ready sites. 5. Identify investment attraction objectives. 6. Identify potential policies and procedures that 7. support investment attraction. 8. 7. Determine investment attraction tactics. 9. 8. Implement, monitor, evaluate, and adjust. “Building a viable and diversified regional economy” is the first goal of the M.D. of Bonnyville Council’s 2022-2027 Strategic Plan.