Building a Resilient Economy in Medicine Hat

Bring Back The Porch welcomes Selena McLean Moore. She discusses the economic development strategies of Medicine Hat, highlighting assets, challenges, and future opportunities including energy, aerospace, and agriculture sectors.

Chapters

00:00 The Essence of Economic Development
02:55 Investment Attraction and Community Engagement
05:49 Building Relationships for Economic Growth
08:54 The Four Pillars of Economic Development
12:01 Challenges in Air Service and Transportation
15:03 Opportunities in Aerospace and Petrochemical Industries
17:57 Agricultural Development and Workforce Training
20:59 The Future of Medicine Hat's Economy

Economic development is a gradual process that requires careful planning and community engagement. We explore the insights shared by Selena McLean Moore, Director of Economic Development for the City of Medicine Hat

The foundation of economic development lies in business retention and expansion. Understanding the local business landscape is crucial. Selena emphasized that businesses already located in Medicine Hat are there for a reason, they are successful in this environment. It’s essential to recognize their needs and ensure they remain supported. 

In today’s competitive landscape, attracting investments is more challenging than ever. With thousands of communities vying for a limited number of investments, the importance of being prepared is crucial to the success of our community.

In summary, the journey of economic development in Medicine Hat is a slow but rewarding process. By focusing on business retention, community involvement, and sustainable practices, the city can create a thriving environment for economic growth. Every resident has a role to play in this journey, and together, the community can build a bright economic future.

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Transcript

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Hey, this is Brian again, and I'd like to ask you to do a favor. We can't do this work without people like you. So if you can, please like, share, subscribe, tell your friends about bring back the porch. I would say the heart of economic development is that investment, business retention, business retention and expansion. So it's understanding what we do well in medicine Hat and understanding the business make up what their needs are, the needs of the businesses that are currently here. Because if those businesses are already located in Medicine Hat, there's a reason why they're successful here. And so let's make sure to keep them here. This episode of bring back the porch. Brought to you by medicine at Monumental Crafting Quality Memorials of Distinction since 1970. There's an expression that I heard at the Medicine at College Convocation that was attributed to you. A little by little, a little becomes a lot. And I thought, what a perfect way to describe economic development. Absolutely. Yeah. What drew you to that? I think that originally it's a proverb from Tanzania. Tanzania in Africa. Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I, I think it's a it's actually a very good, a very good explanation of economic development. It's a slow game. It doesn't economic development does not happen overnight. And what we do is we put in the processes that are required to build the economy in place. And when we continue to do those processes, the the goal is to realize economic development over time. Yeah. It's like a recipe you have to put in the right amount of ingredients at the right time for everything to happen. That's right. That's right. And every, every piece that we focus on feeds off the other piece. Right. Just like like a recipe. Right. You need all those ingredients in order to make the cake. Yeah. In your particular case, everybody's waiting for that cake to come out of the oven, though. That's the hard part, is that everybody's anticipating or waiting for some big announcement. And that might have been the way it went back in the 60s and 70s. But those days don't happen very often anymore. Yeah. Yeah. I think there was a there was a stat that I heard last year, and I believe it was 5000 investments, 30,000 communities in North America were were competing for 5000 investments. So and you have to think those 30,000 communities are are the, you know, Calgary and Edmonton is Toronto's, Vancouver's of the world. Chicago, you know, New York. Those are those are big municipalities. And so yes, it takes it takes a lot of work and luck to land some of those investments. Medicine had I think it was Kipling who said were the town born lucky because we have the energy, we have the sun, we have good crops that we can grow here. We have lots going for us. We do. So that makes your job easier? Yes, absolutely. In my prior, my prior life, I was an employee with the government of Alberta, and I was I worked with regions all across the province, and a lot of my colleagues in those regions used to they used to be a little jealous about the way I was able to share about this community in this region, because we do have a lot of assets that not all communities have. Yeah, we are known as the city with energy. Yeah. And these days, energy is in demand. And I know the big I guess the thing that people are looking for is a data center AI. That's where everybody thinks the panacea is today. Medicine hat has the energy. We have the water on underground aquifer to cool whatever would need to be built. Have we been looking at that? We have definitely entertained opportunities. So, you know, the a lot of times the data centers nowadays they're coming with bring your own power. So basically what that means is they produce their own power through natural gas. So they're not necessarily looking for our electricity anymore. They're looking for natural gas to build their own power. And so we do entertain. We do entertain opportunities every so often. Yeah I know Brooks is looking at one right now and Oles is another one. But there's the public is not 100% behind these things. There's the ground is shifting every day. It is, it is. And I think yeah. And I think that's something that as economic developers, we have to be very mindful of its you know, economic development also keeps in mind the so it's the economy. It's the social fabric of the community and the environment. Right. All three of those are very, very important when making decisions. If we don't if we don't connect with the community appropriately, with certain investments, that can pose a real challenge to actually landing that investment, because the community has to they have to be on board. They have to believe in that investment. Investors, if they see or if they sent some of that discomfort from a community. And if there's, you know, sometimes a, you know, there's, you know, loud voices that are not happy with a certain investment. Those investors will leave. So part of our work is ensuring that the community is aware when the when the time is right. Yeah. You can't show your cards too early. That's right. Yeah. That uncertainty is what drives investors away. And I often wonder if they're watching us on social media, how much that impacts someone making a decision over this community or this community. If they look at the the social media and how people are talking about their own community, how much that impacts those decisions. You know what? Ultimately, I think every every resident within Medicine Hat in southeast Alberta has a responsibility for economic development. And, you know, the responsibility of the residents and the business people is to create an environment that that that shines well outside of outside of Medicine Hat. And so you're absolutely right. You know, when we can when we can talk positively about our community. That is much it makes it a lot easier for, you know, the city to be able to do our job. You recently your department won an award for the opportunity where you brought in people from outside to take a look at all that we have to offer in our little area here. Has any of those tours sprouted roots yet? So we've done two tours now. We did the one that was that we won the award for that was back in 2024. We just did another one. Both had different focuses. So back in 2024, we were a brand new department and we had been kind of, you know, we hadn't really been connecting with those agencies outside of Medicine Hat for a little bit of time. And so the whole idea around the 2024 tour was, let's show everybody that we are open for business and that we are back in business. And so instead of instead of, you know, reaching out 1 to 1, we decided, why don't we bring everybody here? So we had I think it was about 20, 23 individuals from I think 15 or 16 different organizations came to Medicine Hat. They, they participated in a an evening cocktail event where they got to meet senior business, senior leaders, decision makers, business people. They got to really, you know, learn about what medicine had and about our people. And then the, the the next day we took them on a trolley tour, which they really, really liked that took him on the trolley tour, then took them to the Esplanade where we had a big presentation on Medicine Hat. Why? You know, everything from our land, our energy, our planning and development. They got to learn about everything about Medicine Hat. And then that followed. Followed with a luncheon with the Premier. So that was, I think, a that was a really that was a draw. Definitely. And then from there they went on some tours of different, different companies in Medicine Hat. It went over really, really well and we had a lot of really positive feedback. I think where we were able to leverage that event was around the relationships with the organizations and investment agencies that can help us sell Medicine Hat. So it was, you know, let's look to the relationships that we have that are already selling Alberta to say, hey, don't forget about Medicine Hat. Yeah, I think that's what Al Sharma was talking about when he paid us a visit on the porch earlier, about building those relationships so that, you know, people who know people and networking and all of that stuff. Exactly. That's right. Four pillars of economic development. I found that on the city website workforce development, business development, investment attraction and investment growth and readiness. Yes. All same, but different. I think they're all a little different. They're a little different. But they like I had mentioned before, they are they do all feed off of each other. So I would say the heart of economic development is that investment, business retention, business retention and expansion. So it's understanding what we do well in medicine Hat and understanding the business make up what their needs are, the needs of the businesses that are currently here. Because if those businesses are already located in Medicine Hat, there's a reason why they're successful here. And so let's make sure to keep them here. So that's the first piece. Second piece is workforce. I mean we need we need a workforce is becoming within North America very very challenging for most municipalities. That is more because there's there's gaps and skills. So we have we have we do have a higher unemployment rate, but we have a lot of companies that still can't find the right, the right workers. And so we need to be able to support those companies and bringing the right professionals so those companies can stay here. So another big piece, the third one, investment readiness. We need to make sure that we are working with our land department, with our planning department, energy Department to ensure that we have created an environment that is ready if a company ever wants to come here or if a company wants to expand. Finally, which I always like to say, investment attraction is actually probably the last pillar because we can't do investment attraction unless we have all of those other all of those other things, unless we're doing all those other as well. And so that's how you know, that's how investment attraction works, is we understand the businesses, we understand our assets. We decide what is it that we think would work well in Medicine Hat, and we go after that industry. One of the challenges that you'll be facing, you and the city Council is the lack of air service to Medicine Hat. As WestJet flies away for the last time, it is not going to be easy, but I think you have a partner in Lethbridge to that. You might be able to work together to bring somebody here. Yes, we're hoping so. Yes, it's going to be a challenge. The province has stepped up to the plate. They are. They just announce an expression of interest call for smaller airlines that might be interested in serving the regional, the regional airports. So the province is looking at subsidizing those airlines. And so we're hoping that that offer is going to help us attract attract another airline. Because, yes, air service is very, very important to economic development. It's it's it's tourism. It's bringing down the CEO of our, our major companies. It's making sure that our workforce can get where they need to go efficiently. Yeah. You can imagine the CEO landing in Calgary, meaning told he has to drive three hours to find this place. And he might think maybe I look somewhere else. Exactly. Yeah. So that's I guess, number one on the to do list right now. That's right. Aerospace industry here though we have one that I'm sure a lot of people are unaware of. All the things that are happening in the aerospace industry here. I think Mayor Clark referred to us as the drone capital when she was at the state of the region back last month, too. So talk a little bit about how the synergies work there when one comes and another component, like a jigsaw puzzle when you put it together. Sure. So I was I was talking about how we we need to look at the assets that we have. And so southeast Alberta is is a prime location for defense and aerospace, mainly because we've we've got we are in close proximity to CFB Suffield, which has Defense Research and Development Canada research Station. And we are also close to foremost UAS range. So those two assets make us make us very different than many, many other areas of North America. So those are the those are the two assets that we definitely focus on when we when we look at our topography. We're a flat terrain. We've got a lot of space. We've got a lot of restricted airspace. So when people are needing to test and train their drones, they can do that in a space that they're not. They're not having to worry about other aircraft, basically. So defense and aerospace, we've also got a small cluster. We've got three, three. We'd like to call them our Medicine Hat primes. So we've got kinetic and landing zones and UV along with some other other service space types of of companies. That is what what that does for Medicine Hat is it enables a kind of, I guess, a competitive advantage in workforce, because we've got a higher number of aerospace engineers, and the more you build that cluster, the more it's going to be easier to sell, because there's the workforce opportunities, there's more workforce opportunities within the region. And those people attract friends who are in the industry. Absolutely. Tell their friend, hey, Bill, you know, we've got a good thing going here. You should come and check us out. Yes, absolutely. They they often talk about the defense and aerospace sector as being a very tight knit group. Yeah, yeah. Also Medicine Hat has a big petrochemical industry and opportunities there. Absolutely. So yeah, we've got our you know, we've got our major companies CF, CF industries ammonia fertilizer plant. We've got Methenex, we've got Cancarb Goodyear and so and Evonik which is another petrochemical company. There's definitely opportunity. One of the things that we are working on right now to retain those companies is our carbon capture hub in order, you know, as we look forward to the energy transition plans and this net zero by 2050 that the government of Canada continues to to talk about and make policy around, we are going to be needing to find ways to keep high emitters here. And because if if we can't find a way for them to become carbon neutral, they're going to have to go somewhere else. So we are very fortunate, fortunate to have the topography for a carbon capture hub. Is that still just in a theoretical stage or is there, there, there, there advancing. So we are hoping. We are hoping by, I believe, 2030 that it will be in full operation. You mentioned Suffield too, and with the changes that are happening in Canada's military, more investment. There's opportunity for Suffield to again flex its muscle economically in the region. Absolutely. With the Carney announcement for the I think it was five 5% spend for NATO, that is that is is putting those bases, I think, on steroids. So they're they're really being able to build their capacity just even, you know, the sea, it's not an expansion, it's a renewal. So basically they're rebuilding the research station. And so what that's going what that's going to do is that that's going to provide medicine hat with opportunities, first of all, for construction and and possible, you know, if I don't know if they're going to be increasing their hires, but there is definitely going to be opportunity there as well. The ag industry is another big, I guess, footprint for southeast Alberta. And I think your friends in Cypress County are working on something. They've just recently got a grant to their synergy there. Yes. Yes, absolutely. They're working on a grant for workforce and investment attraction. So they received a grant for workforce and investment attraction. We we released a strategy, Southeast Alberta Economic Opportunity Strategy, about about a year and a half ago. And the focus from that strategy is going to be agriculture. And so the city of Medicine Hat, along with Cypress County, County of 40 Mile, Town of Redcliff, Village of Foremost, and Town of Wyland, are going to be collaborating on some agriculture work. What we see the opportunity for Southeast Alberta is to really build, build the capacity of our producers and help them to be able to move into more value added space, basically being able to take what they're growing and make it into something to sell. And so we are working on a project. Hopefully, hopefully we'll be able to announce something soon around that. You'll. School of agriculture is broken ground, where students in Cyprus County will be trained in all aspects of agriculture. That speaks to your workforce development that we were talking about earlier, that you'll have the people here to do a lot of that work. Yes. So, yes. So the US School of Agriculture is one also Southern Alberta Flight Academy, there's a lot of different programing. Programing is different now in in secondary schools. I mean when I went back when I went to school, we just sat in a desk and we learned our core subjects and our options and we left for the day. And it's just not like that anymore. And so I think that what is so good about that is we are able to take students who have a passion for something, and we're being able to integrate them into the workforce at a much earlier age. And I think that's that's a that's a very good thing considering some of the gaps we have in our workforce. The twinning of highway three must also be something you're happy about. Absolutely. That is we're looking forward there in the research there in the design phase right now, hoping to break ground in 2027 that that highway, when that is twinned we will then be able to will be at the intersection of two double lane highways. We will be two hours away from the US border, double lane all the way. It's going to allow us to possibly even attract different industry. We are considering looking into what opportunities are there for transportation and logistics, given the fact that we're at that intersection and build on our ag sector. Okay. Anything else that you wanted to talk about? Maybe it's chance to brag a little bit about Medicine Hat while you're here? Well, I, I believe that we are in one of the most beautiful, most opportunistic communities in Alberta, if not western Canada. We have we have a lot of opportunity that a lot of municipalities don't. And I think that's really important for the general public. Our residents to understand is, you know, we, you know, our our quality of life is second to none. We we top the quality of life compared to a lot of other municipalities like I have talked about our assets. You know, we've got assets here that that not many other municipalities can say they have. We've got, you know, we we manage our own electricity. So, you know, we have we have control around that and we've got really good people. So I think there's there's a lot there's a lot to brag about. And I do believe that that we're going to see some, some growth in the years coming. And as you mentioned earlier, people that live here need to be positive about their own community and maybe check themselves when they want to make a negative comment. Absolutely. Selina McLean-Moore, Director of Economic Development, for the City of Medicine, Hat Thank you for the visit. Thank you very much.