Building a strong foundation to support business and commercial development in High River was an important focus in 2017 for Economic Development.

Economic Development Manager Jodi Dawson says building the foundation, especially the parts that increase the Towns profile, was a big focus in 2017.

The department worked on rebuilding all the piece-parts that can then be used to increase the Town's profile.

"So we needed a more modern feel on our digital presence." said Dawson. "We needed a new website. We needed to develop some content and stories. We have great stories in this town, always have, we just need to be more intentional in capturing them and amplifying them."

The new website and the videos released telling High River's stories were two ways Economic Development worked at getting a positive message out to the world.

All that foundation work is having an impact as the Town has seen an increase in commercial occupancy from 75 per cent to 86 per cent in the last 18 months and new commercial development has grown by 234,170 square feet since 2015.

Dawson adds the Town's job is to make it easy for businesses to get going.

"Our job as government is to really stay out of businesses way. So make it as easy as possible to get going and then stay out of the way."

 

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