Red Deer and Olds have earned some ink in Alberta Venture magazine.
The two municipalities are profiled in the business magazine’s June edition, thanks to their inclusion on a list of the 25 best communities for business in Western Canada.
Red Deer is cited as one of the best places for small business, while Olds is recognized for its information technology and high-tech services.
The magazine points to Red Deer’s desirable location in the Calgary-Edmonton corridor, and the important role it plays in providing information technology, equipment fabrication, oil service technologies and transportation services to Alberta’s oil and gas sectors.
“Because these areas of activity are largely made up of small firms, Red Deer has one of the highest numbers of small businesses per capita in the entire country.”
Alberta Venture praises the city for implementing the BizPal system to reduce red tape for businesses, and for creating bylaws that make it easier to set up home-based businesses.
It also gave a thumbs-up for the collaborative work of Red Deer Regional Economic Development and Central Alberta Economic Partnership in seeking to attract foreign direct investment in the manufacturing, transportation, logistics and agri-food sectors.
Red Deer’s median household income of $100,986 was second only to Wood Buffalo’s $177,634. And the city ranked sixth in 2001-2010 population growth (32 per cent), and seventh for the cost of services land ($300,000 per acre).
In the case of Olds, Alberta Venture was impressed with the efforts of the Olds Institute for Community & Regional Development in pushing for fibre-optic broadband connectivity to every household and business in the area. The OICRD was also mentioned favourably for its development of Mountain View Power, which devotes its profits to sustainable community economic development.
The $68-million Community Learning Campus being developed by the town, Mountain View County, Chinook’s Edge School Division, Olds College and other partners also attracted an approving nod, as did the high-tech learning incubator at Olds College.
Alberta Venture based its top-25 listing on information submitted by 43 communities.
It declared Medicine Hat the best community for business in Western Canada. Low taxes, inexpensive industrial land costs and office lease rates, and the city’s proximity to booming Saskatchewan were among the reasons given for this decision.