On Our Way to Endless Opportunity On Our Way to Endless Opportunity | Page 24

Acknowledgments
The Onoway/Lac Ste. Anne Partnership would like to acknowledge and thank the many residents
and businesses who willingly gave their time and expertise to provide insight and real-life
examples of the challenges and opportunities facing the region. In economic development
practice, it is well known that local businesses and residents know their region better than any
“hired-guns”, or consultants.
Partnerships would not be successful without the leadership and guidance of the elected officials. The
Partnership thanks and congratulates the Town of Onoway and Lac Ste. Anne County for the foresight and
leadership in creating a regional partnership intended to make both communities more sustainable. Of course,
Council’s set the direction, but Administration is tasked with ensuring the desired outcomes are achieved.
Management and staff from both partners were fully engaged and cooperative in all aspects of this study.
The Partnership also acknowledges the financial support from Alberta Municipal Affairs through the Alberta
Community Partnership (ACP) Program. Funding through the ACP Program not only supported the creation of
the economic development strategy but will also be used to implement recommendations from this plan and
support ongoing best practices in economic development.
The Partnership is very excited to have produced an economic development roadmap that will not only set out
broad goals but will also serve as a step-by-step guide to implement the actions and achieve the desired results.
We acknowledge that this is but a step toward the future and understand much work remains to be done.
Economic development is hard to achieve at any level, but creating a new regional group is even harder to
get off the ground. The Onoway/Lac Ste. Anne Partnership started with limited representation to try and build
a solid foundation and structure for regional economic development collaboration. The Steering committee
acknowledges, that once a solid foundation and structure has been developed, then they will move beyond a
Steering Committee and graduate to a much broader region. We trust that neighbouring communities will afford
the Steering Committee the time to establish the ground rules and enable a new regional partnership to hit the
ground running. The whole purpose of the Steering Committee is to learn to walk before we run.
On behalf of the Onoway/Lac Ste. Anne Partnership
Councillor Lynne Tonita
Town of Onoway Mayor Judy Tracy
Town of Onoway
Councillor Lorne Olsvik,
Lac Ste. Anne County Wendy Wildman
CAO, Town of Onoway
Councillor Wade Neilson
Town of Onoway Mike Primeau
County Manager, Lac Ste. Anne County
Cindy Suter
Lac Ste. Anne County Economic Development
Director and Staff Liaison for the Partnership
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Councillor Steve Hoyda,
Lac Ste. Anne County
Nick Gelych, Chair; Deputy Reeve
Lac Ste. Anne County