There's a lot of talk in High River about what businesses residents would like to see come to town.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass says it's a topic he hears a lot of.

"I get that all the time. "We need a X, Y, Z" right? That's not our job. To go find X, Y, Z and bring it in. There has to be a business case around for the entrepreneur that wants to open business X, Y, Z. If there's no market for X, Y, Z, they're not opening it. Just because you want it, doesn't mean the business is going to succeed."

One of the most common complaints he hears is why are there so many empty buildings downtown and what's the Town doing to fill them?

He says the short answer is "nothing."

"The clarity I need to give this community on our end is that we are not realtors to start telling these landlords what to do. There's no way I'm doing it. That's their business. We do ours. They do theirs. If their space sits vacant for the next 10 years that's their deal, not mine. They're paying taxes on it. We're good."

Snodgrass says the Town's job is to run the Town in a way businesses might want to come here and they do what they can to attract them, but at the end of the day it's up to business owners to decide if High River is right for them.

 

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