Going with the old adage, "there's strength in number," seven municipalities in central Alberta have banded together to try to capitalize on local and regional economic opportunities with a new website that provides entrepreneurs with information in a streamlined format. 

The Mountain View Corridor website is a joint effort of the Towns of Crossfield, Carstairs, Didsbury, Olds, Sundre along with the Village of Cremona and Mountain View County.

The website, which has just been launched, will showcase what central Alberta has to offer to site selectors, potential entrepreneurs and established businesses that are considering expansion.

Mitch Thomson, the Executive Director of the Olds Institute for Community and Regional Development explains the purpose of the website.

"It's a place where business people can get good, solid information about each of the communities in that space along Highway 2, 2A and 22, to ensure that they have the opportunity to explore opportunities in that region."

The goal, according to Thomson, is to generate more business in the region.  "As well, it's to provide just good information for businesses that exist. Invest Canada Community Initiatives through the Federal Government helped fund this program to attract new business to the region and provide sound information for existing business to expand and grow."

Thomson says they understood that each community had many benefits on their own but collectively they had more scale.  He says, "When businesses look at the entire picture, it paints a different story and we wanted these site selectors and investors looking at investment to recognize the bigger picture opportunity that exists here."

When asked if any particular business type might be more attracted to the area than others, Thomson points in particular to logistics businesses in the transportation industry.  However, he says the area has so much more that it could offer nearly any type of business.

"If you look at each individual community, there's a number of other things that come up.  The number of operations that are getting into the cannabis space, technology companies, there are some tourism opportunities, as well as smart agriculture.  There's a number of things that come to the forefront when you look at the communities as a whole."

Thomson says the communities in the region took a solid look at what they could do collectively and what they could do better collectively and came together to do that.  He calls it an "all for one and one for all" approach to ensuring that investment is secured for the region. 

You can view the new website here.

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