All 13 Edmonton Metro Region Mayors commit to working together on new Collaborative Economic Development initiative

Having signed a memorandum of understanding, effective April 12, 2021, all 13 regional Mayors are demonstrating a commitment to work in partnership on developing a new, innovative and scalable model with the Collaborative Economic Development (CED) initiative.

The initiative will advance additional economic opportunities for Edmonton Metropolitan Region partners through projects targeting new, non-residential growth and jobs beyond individual municipal boundaries. Economic development is the backbone of the Edmonton Metro Region. By working together, partners can strengthen our region's economy and achieve more together than ever before. With the impacts from COVID-19 and new opportunities ahead, the CED initiative is achievable, essential and the time is right.

Using a collaborative approach, partners will jointly:

• create a plan for municipalities to increase investment;
• leverage existing resources and knowledge in new ways and;
• apply a model to directly share in the financial benefits.

13 Participating Municipalities

City of Beaumont	City of Leduc	City of St. Albert
Town of Devon	Leduc County	City of Spruce Grove
City of Edmonton	Town of Morinville	Town of Stony Plain
City of Fort Saskatchewan	Parkland County	Strathcona County
Sturgeon County

“It is exciting to see so many regional partners offer their support for this new approach,” said City of St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron. “Together, we will look at opportunities to provide a simplified and faster path for business investment in targeted areas by making the regulatory environment easier to navigate. This will include work to reduce red tape, and document available tools and strengths that we can leverage to increase investment opportunities.”

By working together on aligned economic goals in a coordinated and integrated way, partners can transition from transactional to transformational economic development.

“In order to compete as a region, we need to make it easy to do business here. This new model will allow our region to better align in order to attract new kinds of investment, essentially increasing the size of the proverbial pie, rather than simply dividing up the existing one,” said City of Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson. “By leveraging existing research and recommendations, with local regional expertise, we can shape what types of investment the partners should target, but also address challenges and barriers to create more opportunities for all,” said Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson.

“We have always been strong supporters of regional cooperation and are very excited to be part of this new initiative,” said City of Spruce Grove Mayor Stuart Houston. “Taking a collaborative approach to attract new investment to our communities will benefit all of us as we work together to find opportunities that will support and strengthen our local economy.”

Next Steps

Staff from the partnering municipalities will develop the details of the Collaborative Economic Development model. This will require engagement with various stakeholders to ensure that the model successfully meets their needs and drives business investment in the region.

For more information: stalbert.ca/ced