OLDS — Subsidizing employee training is a better way to strengthen businesses than offering tax breaks to lure them here, an economic development officer says.
Sandra Blyth suggested that during an appearance before an Olds town council policies and priorities meeting.
“We can look into the United States and see tax breaks, incentivization and subsidies that they provide many industries down there. It’s in the billions,” Blyth said. “I can then show you many studies of how that money is wasted and how it didn’t actually spur new development.
“So on the other side, if we’re more strategic, subsidize training for companies here, if the companies leave, we still have the trained people.”
Blyth has been in the economic development business for governments and municipalities for about 23 years.
She said over that time she’s learned that one of the best ways to spur economic growth locally is to speak one-on-one with business leaders and find out what bottlenecks and frustrations exist for them.
She’s found that getting representatives of those businesses in a room to meet each other and look for solutions to their problems has yielded big dividends.
“They could share in costs as far as marketing, or importing supplies. If they share in those costs, it would be easier, more cost-effective to do so. It just requires getting in the room to have the discussion,” she said.
“There’s opportunities here for synergies, for cost-savings, whatever the case may be.”
Blyth said one of the owners of Pharmasave told her that kind of approach spurred him to get that chain of pharmacies going.
“That’s where the golden ticket is. You’ve got to meet face-to-face; you’ve got to talk to each other, you’ve got to create trust among not just agencies but between businesses. You get business in the room, deals happen," she said.
“But you’ve got to have the right discussion, right? It’s not cocktails. ‘Let’s have cocktails and get together.’ No, it’s ‘let’s sit down and talk about the warts.’ What’s not working? Why isn’t it working? How do we fix it?”
She conceded getting people who run competing firms in one room to open up with each other about their business-related problems is not easy, but said it can be done.
Blyth said the Town of Olds' annexation of three quarter sections of land from Mountain View County is an exciting development. The province approved the annexation late this past year. The land is located at the eastern edge of Olds, adjacent to Highway 27.
“I can’t wait to sell that. I’ve got an investor right now. We’re looking at a $350 million plant that could come here,” she said.
“I forget how many acres they need. I think it’s 384 acres they need for that plant.”
