$30M to be pumped into regional economy

Surviving Alberta's economic crisis isn't about who is strongest, Jay Slemp says, it's about who can adapt.

Slemp is chair of the Palliser Economic Partnership in central Alberta and his region will test that theory when the Hanna coal mine closes.

He wants workers to stay in the region, but that means figuring out how to diversify the local economy.

That's where a new provincial government grant comes in.

The Community and Regional Economic Support program will see $30 million made available over two years to communities, regions, municipalities, regional economic development alliances and four Rural Alberta Business Centres.

It's not new money, but cash from the 2015 and 2016 budgets rolled into a new program.

There will be two funding streams, both of which will cover up to half of a project's cost. One stream is for community economic development projects, for which funding will begin at $10,000. For regional economic development, funding starts at $25,000.

Economic Development and Trade Minister Deron Bilous sold it Wednesday as a way to “put homegrown projects and economic development plans into action.”

Slemp sees it as a means to develop strategic plans to pursue projects on a regional scale, like widening rural access to broadband Internet, getting agricultural products to more markets and supporting regional business development.

“If we can diversify our economy, we're stronger,” Slemp said.

Slemp is convinced throwing money at a problem won't solve it. The cash needs to be used in the right place, he said, which is why the program's bottom-up approach is so important.

“We want to be efficient,” he said. “We don't want to just get money — we want to get the outcome. The outcome is much more important.”