Project

Industry Targeting and Attraction Plan in Strathcona County (Alberta)

EBP was hired by Strathcona County – a suburban municipality located just east of Edmonton, Alberta – to help attract new kinds of industrial development to the county.

Strathcona County was looking to continue to diversify from an oil and gas dominant industry base to one that builds on this existing foundation into other sectors like petrochemical, value-added agriculture, transportation logistics, and forms of advanced manufacturing. The infrastructure and value chains that have been established for prior growth may be adapted or added to in order to aid in this transformation.

The County had already developed strategies and tools in the past to attract and secure investment – including grants, infrastructure, and even the new Heartland Incentive Program. The County now wished to better refine this sector targeting to:

-make it more specific and relevant to the County’s attributes and unique strengths

-identify the Strathcona County value propositions for these sectors

-develop action plans to begin to approach and then service these sectors

EBP developed specific action plans to help the County foster more inward investment and entrepreneurial activity in diverse energy systems, food production, manufacturing with advanced materials, and development of new transportation and logistics capacity. In addition to recruitment activities, EBP also helped to address needs for ready industrial land and the potential development of highly selective incentive tools.