CRP REGIONAL ECONOMIC PROSPERITY
STEERING COMMITTEE AGENDA
Date:
Time:
Location:
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Coffee 8:30 - 9:00 a.m.; Meeting 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Aspen Meeting Room, Main Floor, Cochrane Ranchehouse
101 Ranchehouse Road, Cochrane, AB T4C 2K8
Steering Committee Acting Chair:
Economic Prosperity Lead:
Michael Ell, Mayor, Town of Strathmore [email protected]
Bob Miller [email protected]
AGENDA ITEMS:
9:00
1.
Welcome, Agenda and Minutes of
November 3, 2016 meeting
Acting Chair Ell
9:25
2.
Re-schedule March 9th meeting to March 30
Acting Chair Ell
9:30
3.
Update on Alberta SuperNet
Stephen Bull, Assistant Deputy Minister,
SuperNet Secretariat, Service Alberta
Stephen Bull
10:30
4.
BREAK
10:45
5.
Q&A re: Alberta SuperNet
Stephen Bull
11:15
6.
Calgary Region Broadband update
Bob Miller/Craig Dobson
11:30
7.
CRP staffing update
Bob Miller
11:35
8.
“On the Horizon”
Acting Chair Ell/Bob
 CED Economic Summit (Feb 2)
 CargoLogistics trade show & conference (in Vancouver, Feb 8-9)
 Eastern Alberta Trade Corridor Forum (in Camrose, March 1-3)
 Canadian Badlands conference (in Brooks, March 15-17)
 Digital Futures (in Cochrane, March 16/17)
 Economic Developers of Alberta (EDA) (Banff, March 22-24)
 Canadian Inland Ports conference (Calgary, May 24-25)
 Collaborate to Compete (Ottawa, May 31-June 1)
 CRP General Assembly (at RancheHouse, June 21)
11:45
9.
“Cross-Region Check-up” and LUNCH
12:30 – 1:15pm
ALL
Southern Alberta Dark Fibre Collaborative Opportunity
CRP Regional Economic Prosperity Steering Committee Agenda, January 19, 2017
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Presentation
Jay Slemp, Chair of Palliser Economic Partnership (PEP)
Councillor Jim Turner, Medicine Hat (and Chair of PEP Broadband
Committee)
Walter Valentini, Executive Director, Palliser Economic Partnership
NEXT MEETING
Date:
Time:
Location:
March XX, 2017
9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Cochrane Ranchehouse
CRP Regional Economic Prosperity Steering Committee Agenda, January 19, 2017
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CRP REGIONAL ECONOMIC PROSPERITY
STEERING COMMITTEE MINUTES
Date:
Time:
Location:
Thursday, November 3, 2016
9:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Aspen Meeting Room, Cochrane Ranchehouse
101 Ranchehouse Road, Cochrane, AB
ATTENDING:
MUNICIPALTY
Airdrie
Black Diamond
Calgary
Chestermere
Cochrane
Okotoks
Redwood Meadows
Strathmore
Turner Valley
CRP
NON-MEMBERS
Irricana
Rocky View County
MD Foothills
Consultants
Community Futures
GOA
STEERING COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVE STAFF COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVE
Kent Rupert
Glen Fagan, Jackie Stickel
Ward Sutherland
Patrick Watson
Chair Bill Robertson, Matt Rockley
Jean-Marc Lacasse
Mike Korman, Stefan Price
Alexandra Ross
Tim Anderson
Michael Ell
John Waring
Bob Miller, Cheryl Knapp,
Alison Graf, Sarah Champagne
Liz Breaky, Bruce Kendall
Suzanne Oel
Craig Dobson, Sheri Fenn
Jodie Eckert
Lisa Houle
Dawn Mosondz
David Kalinchuk
MINUTES:
1.
Welcome, Agenda and Minutes of September 8, 2016 Meeting
Chair Robertson welcomed all attendees and roundtable introductions were made.
November 3, 2016 Agenda
MOVED by Jackie Stickel to adopt the agenda as presented. CARRIED.
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September 8, 2016 Minutes:
MOVED by Mayor Ell, that the minutes of the September 8, 2016 Economic Prosperity Steering
Committee meeting be adopted. CARRIED.
2.
Regional Broadband & Digital Connectivity Updates
Bob Miller provided an update on what has been happening with regional broadband. Since the
September 23rd, 2016 Board meeting, Administration has been working with municipal staff to move
forward with the recommended actions contained within the Regional Broadband and Digital
Connectivity Explorations report. Presentations were provided to AUMA’s “Mid-Sized Cities Caucus”
in Chestermere in September and to all REDA Managers in Edmonton in October. CRP staff
participated in a broadband panel discussion at AUMA’s Annual Convention.
There has been significant “go forward” energy among participating municipal staff in each of the
East, South and West sub-regions and strategy meetings will continue on into the New Year for these
sub-regions to identify opportunities for collaboration in developing regional and sub-regional
business cases with cost estimates. CRP’s broadband consultant will provide expertise and guidance
and provide technical solutions to municipalities.
Work is just beginning to explore how any commonly-owned/leased backhaul fibre or other assets
might be owned and/or managed collectively, as sub-regional solutions emerge. We will be engaging
the CAOs in that exploration early in the new year. We continue to look for grant monies to support
network planning, construction and operations. CRP staff and consultant will continue to make
presentations to municipal staff, elected officials and to businesses and the general public (if
requested to do so) to help explain broadband and fibre issues, opportunities, risks and options, etc.
Learnings over the next 6 months will be incorporated into a proposed Regional Broadband Vision
and Framework, for presentation to the Economic Prosperity Steering Committee by June, 2016, as
identified in the Board’s approved recommendations from September 23, 2016.
There is federal interest in coming out with infrastructure money for broadband and fibre and we
need to be ready to move quickly. Electric Lightwave is a company that purchased another company
that had been around for a couple of decades, puttting in dark fibre. Electric Lightwave wholesales
fibre to Telus and other businesses and are able to sell or lease dark fibre to us. We’d just need to
arrange to light up the fibre and put the electronics in and then we’d have broadband capacity
forever. Other incumbents don’t like to do that. This company is the only one we have found who
are interested in doing dark fibre and letting others light it up. They are not an incumbent and don’t
compete with triple play service. They only sell dark fibre. If we work together with the municipalities
out Medicine Hat way, we will likely be able to share the cost and have cheaper options.
Stefan Price with the Town of Cochrane (West Sub-region) reported:
 The Town is looking at internal solutions as well as regional opportunities.
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They have prepared outlines of three different business models to present to Council. Those
models are going forward to the senior leadership team this month. If all goes well, they will
be before Council in early December.
Cochrane does currently have some fibre in the community and will likely get more in 2017.
They are excited about opportunities like that of Electric Lightwave.
From an economic development perspective, this spurs other discussions in the Town.
The Town is still thinking of installing fibre in the sanitary line that will be twinned to Calgary.
The Town’s preference is to own the fibre and run it as a utility.
Mayor Glen Fagan with the Town of Black Diamond (South Sub-region) reported:
 50% of his Council still don’t fully comprehend the subject but want to proceed.
 The Towns of Turner Valley and Black Diamond need to arrive at the same solution. The
Towns have a friendship agreement meeting to discuss broadband specifically to arrive at
the best solution for both towns.
 They will look at starting to engage Craig Dobson’s services.
 They have noticed that Telus is quietly providing fibre service to businesses in town.
Mayor Michael Ell with the Town of Strathmore (East Sub-region) reported:
 They had a meeting with the City of Chestermere, Wheatland County and Electric Lightwave
yesterday.
 There is fibre in the ground running from Medicine Hat right to Strathmore. That fibre can
be used by other towns along the way.
 There needs to be more awareness of the issue created in the Town. He is looking forward
to Bob and Craig making presentations to Council and to his community to raise awareness.
 Wheatland County is very large and it may not be able to do fibre to all its communities.
Towers may need to be used where fibre cannot be deployed.
Bob stated that he and Craig met with Alta Link earlier in the summer. Alta Link provdes electrical
distribution services to 95% of the province. The company has fibre that is primarily used for
lightening prevention. They are looking for revenue opportunities are are quietly putting together a
strategy to utilize their fibre. If that strategy materializes, then they will be a player.
3.
EV Recharging Station Network Proposal
Bob stated that CRP had been approached by the City of Calgary and two other REDAs - Alberta
SouthWest and SouthGrow, to see if we’d be interested in putting together a network of electric
vehicle recharge stations stretching from the Kootenays in BC through to Eastern Alberta. CRP agreed
to participate and we recently held a meeting in Nanton with all the partners, including the
consultants who worked on a similar project in the Kootenays. To date, CRP’s contribution has been
$5,000. The City of Calgary is contributing a bit more to the project because it forms part of their
climate change strategy.
The consultant has assembled a funding proposal to NRCan (submitted on October 31st), to design
the network and then to obtain monies to build the network. Bob showed a slide of the ‘first shot’
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at what a network in our region would look like. This is likely to be a two-year project that will
position the Region well with both commuters and tourists.
4.
BREAK
5.
Transportation & Logistics Update
Bob advised that CRP and Calgary Economic Development are working closely on a number of things
relating to transportation and logistics and the Calgary Region Inland Port. Bob provided a summary
of the advantages the Port of Prince Rupert has to Albertans in getting product out to market: it’s
two days closer to Asia and is the largest deep water port in North America. The Port is serviced by
CN Rail and is therefore connected to Chicago and eastern Canada.
Bob mentioned that our Region has the cheapest total landed cost and that is why we have a number
of intermodal facilities here, including at least 50 major distribution centres. Conrich has a function
that serves all of southern Alberta. If we can’t get product to Conrich, then we can’t get to the Port
of Prince Rupert and out to Asia. One of our biggest challenges it how do we get empty containers
out to fill up and then back on the rail to the port. This is particularly important as we look at valueadded agricultural products and diversifying our economy.
CRP will be working on the Integrated Regional Transportation Master Plan in the next year, starting
this December. The Province has committed funding for this project and is looking to CRP to identify
its 10 ten transportation priorities by next summer. Some of those priorities will be about goods
movement in our Region. The City of Calgary is just commencing a two-year goods movement
strategy and we need to add information to that study about goods movement in the Region. We
also need to rationalize the Region’s Industrial land supply as this is strategic related to rail and
trucking. CRP will work with Alberta Economic Development and Alberta Transportation to ensure
economic development strategies are connected. We will work with the province to be a voice to
the federal government lobbying for infrastructure funding.
6.
Rescheduling the May 25th Steering Committee Meeting
The May 25th, 2017 meeting of the Steering Committee will need to be rescheduled due to a
conference CRP is co-sponsoring with the Van Horne Institute, the Canadian Inland Ports Conference.
Members agreed that May 4th was the best alternate date for this meeting.
7.
“On the Horizon”
 The Van Horne Institute has authored a paper about the value of infrastructure banks.
 CRP has 3 available tickets to Calgary Economic Development’s event on November 8th – 2017
Economic Outlook.
 Colleen Shepherd and Chair Robertson will be attending the NASCO Reunion in Dallas, Fort
Worth.
 CRP will attend the CargoLogistics Conference in Vancouver in early February. Focus will be
on our partnership with the Van Horne Institute, Ashcroft Terminal and the Province of
Alberta, telling the story of trade corridors to raise consciousness of the subject.
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Presentations are on CRP’s website of the Canadian Inland Ports Conference in Winnipeg.
The next Inland Ports Conference will be held in Calgary on May 24-25th, 2017 and CRP is
helping to co-sponsor the conference with the Van Horne Institute.
If anyone is attending FCM in Ottawa next year, consider attending CRP’s Collaborate to
Compete event being held the day prior. If you are planning on attending, book your hotel
now!
CRP has been asked to co-sponsor an ABC Tech Conference being held in Red Deer on
November 26th. This conference is referred to as the “Big Ideas Conference” for diversifying
Alberta’s economy.
EDA Conference will be held in Banff from March 22-24, 2017.
The International Economic Development Council Conference will be held in Toronto from
September 17-20, 2017.
“Cross-Region Check-up” (roundtable)
TOWN OF OKOTOKS (Chair Robertson):
 The Town just hosted Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event that had national television
coverage. This event created great economic benefit and national exposure.
(Alexandra Ross):
 New reflective directional signs have been installed to help find the downtown core easier.
 They did a 30 second tourism clip that was featured on Sports Net. Next year that clip will
be expanded just before the start of summer.
 A Christmas Market is being held on Remembrance Day weekend.
 Cool Little Towns recently did a Christmas brochure that included all events with mapping.
This turned out well and will be distributed at local Christmas markets.
 The Town is working on its architectural guidelines workshop hoping to arrive at identifying
some improvements for the downtown core in general.
 They are working with Community Futures, Bow Valley College and the Chamber on a
business support program that includes education and networking opportunities.
TOWN OF BLACK DIAMOND (Councillor Stickel):
 She volunteered in Okotoks at the curling event and it was a great event.
 The Town is installing its first set of traffic lights!
TOWN OF COCHRANE (Mike Korman):
 The Town of Cochrane is partnering with Bow Valley College, utilizing space at the Visitor
Information Centre to hold some classes. The Town sees opportunities to continue to
collaborate with the College.
 Hometown Hockey is coming to town on February 11th and 12th. This event will draw
thousands of visitors to the Town.
 The Town’s new recreation facility is expected to open in March 2017.
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CITY OF CHESTERMERE (Jean-Marc Lacasse):
 The City is finalizing development plans for the 100 acres it purchased last year. They are in
the process of doing road improvements and works and services to the industrial lands. This
represents over $20M of investment not including the land acquisition costs. Plans are
expected to go before Council within the next couple of weeks.
 Council is on board with broadband and would like to add this service to new ASP’s.
CITY OF AIRDRIE (Kent Rupert):
 Tera Levick is back from maternity leave.
 They are continuing to work on their 10-year economic development strategy and had over
800 people respond to engagement sessions.
 Smart Start windup is being held this evening. 21 entrepreneurs and 15 mentors participated
in the program this 4th year of the product offering.
 The City is doing some work with the Hong Kong Canada Business Association.
 They just launched their LocalIntel site, of which you will hear more of later this afternoon.
 IEDC held a tech-led Economic Development Course in Calgary. This proved to be one of the
best courses he has attended and if anyone sees this coming up again he would highly
recommend it.
 They are gearing up for business lunches and economic updates in November.
TOWN OF STRATHMORE (Mayor Ell):
 They turned the soil two weeks ago on the new K-9 school being developed in town. The
new school will include a field house.
 They have been promised hospital upgrades.
 A recent Fraser Report has stated that their Town is one of the best places in getting
development permits through quickly.
 The Town is currently working on its budget.
 The Chamber has moved back to its downtown location and there is a lot of activity in the
downtown core.
 Fortis attended last night’s Council meeting and did a presentation on changing cobra lights
to LED’s.
TOWNSITE OF REDWOOD MEADOWS (Tim Anderson):
 The Townsite is holding a by-election in mid-December for two Council positions.
 Conico Phillips is correcting some work in the townsite.
GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA (Lisa Houle):
 She participated in the ICCI funding application adjudication process and saw themes in the
applications of website updates/upgrades, lead generation, value added research, etc. She
noted that Alberta applications are collaborative in nature (perhaps as a long term result of
our REDAs?). Successful applicants will be announced in early December.
 The CARES Program hosted 3 webex sessions with 220 registered viewers. The first intake
application deadline for CARES funding is November 30th.
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 You may obtain information on the Global Resources Study here:
http://www.dailyoilbulletin.com/article/2016/9/26/global-resources-market-assessment-study-official-/
MD OF FOOTHILLS (Suzanne Oel):
 The MD of Foothills has completed its new inter-municipal development plan with the City
of Calgary.
 They are working with the Town of Okotoks on plans for the new railroad donation
9.
Alberta – US Trade Summit
Christine Verdonck from the University of Calgary informed everyone of an upcoming summit led by
Calgary Economic Development, the Alberta – US Trade Summit, being held December 6-8, 2016.
The University of Calgary is providing support on plenary and policy discussion and CRP is a cosponsor.
(NOTE: This summit was subsequently postponed until the Spring of 2017).
10. Next Meeting and Adjournment
Chair Robertson advised that he will not be in attendance for the January 19, 2017 meeting. Mayor
Michael Ell agreed to Chair that meeting.
MOVED by Mayor Ell that the meeting be adjourned at 12:56 p.m. CARRIED.
NEXT MEETING
Date:
Time:
Location:
Thursday, January 19, 2016
9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Cochrane Ranchehouse
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