2692 Community Events 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 Town of Devon City of Edmonton City of Fort Saskatchewan City of Leduc Leduc County Town of Morinville Parkland County City of St. Albert City of Spruce Grove Town of Stony Plain 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 are stronger together and look forward to continuing to work within our region to build a collaborative approach to economic development,” said Town of Devon Mayor Ray Ralph. “We have worked hard to bring development here to Devon and this new regional initiative will assist us in bringing much-needed growth to our community.” 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 -30- Media contacts: Alex Cunningham City of St. Albert acunningham@stalbert.ca 780-935-6115 Amber Medynski City of Edmonton amber.medynski@edmonton.ca 780-944-7914 Share Print More links CED Video Learn more about the CED Initiative