The Economic Development Alliance (EDA) of southeast Alberta continues to prove it’s worth by aiding area businesses in finding success.

Caroline Grover, the executive director of the EDA visited county council at its last meeting to update it on what is going on within the alliance.

She said one of the reasons they have been so successful is that, in addition to specialized interns and staff, the EDA has 40 dedicated volunteers to help out.

“We are working hard to attract investment,” she said. “Which is not without challenges right now with global issues.”

However, the EDA has been quite successful in creating awareness of local opportunities and even received four award for their marketing efforts in Alberta.

“We work collaboratively to promote investment,” she said adding they try to help identify problems that are impeding companies, and then affect change.

One of the changes the EDA is currently lobbying for would aid in attracting manufacturing to southern Alberta. To help with this, they are combining forces with the Lethbridge EDA.

They are also working with communities to plan industrial land needs.

Working with businesses which are already in place and invested in the community is also important to the EDA. They recently conducted interviews with oil and gas industries and manufacturing industries to see what their challenges were. They discovered many had created innovative items to take care of on-site issues which could also aid many others facing similar challenges. However, many were unsure as to how to get such items to market.

The EDA hired an innovation facilitator to help with this. Right now he is engaged in working with someone with a product which Grover describes as so cutting edge it could possibly change the course of oil sands production.

The EDA also conducted interviews with greenhouse operators to discover their challenges. They found a need for more foreign workers.

“Our area is the largest in Alberta and they are ready to double production, but they can’t get consistent stable labour without the foreign worker component,” Grover said.

The EDA has contacted the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Immigration about the potential for tweaking the regulations.

The EDA is also seeing more interest in solar power and so is working to position the area as the solar power capital of the province. She said Alberta is already known for fossil fuels, but with wind and solar power added to the mix, it could be known as an energy province. She added that it is time to start recognizing the need for renewable energy and wants to see a research centre for renewable energy set up locally.

Grover reported that the CAF funds the EDA was able to help lever for municipalities was being put to good use. The visitor centre in Bow Island is on its pylons and the decking is set to be done soon.

Renovations have been done to the Police Point Interpretive Centre and the Echo Dale Farm Society.

Updates on the EDA’s progress continues to be available through the newsletter it sends out as well as on its website.