Chambers of Commerce from across communities in Rocky View County (RVC) now have the ability to access badly needed funding thanks to a grant program that was unanimously approved by council.
At its last council meeting, RVC council approved the passage of the Economic Development Initiatives Grant Program, which will allow the Bragg Creek Chamber of Commerce, the Langdon Chamber of Commerce, and any other business associations within the county to apply for funding that can go towards programs, initiatives, or services.
“Chambers of Commerce in our county play an important role and offer important services and benefits to our diverse business community,” said RVC manager of Economic Development Aaron Latimer. According to Latimer, County administration plans to work closely with groups in the county to make sure they understand the policy so they can “further business and economic development within the community.”
For Chambers in the county, the approval of the grant program has been a long time coming. Back in October of 2022, the Bragg Creek Chamber of Commerce submitted a letter to the County requesting funding for their operations and event planning expenses. The County then decided on an allocation of $75,000 for community business groups–$50,000 of which was a carry over from the 2022 budget.
“This is phenomenal and it’s also a part of a bigger picture,” said Bragg Creek Chamber of Commerce President Sherri Olsen. “We now have the economic development manager of RVC talking to the manager of Travel Alberta … These governing bodies can now get together and figure out the big picture plan for say, tourism in Bragg Creek.”
Olsen said that the new program allows for chambers to plan and strategize for things–specifically tourism in Bragg Creek's case–and will allow chambers to do more strategic planning.
“We had chambers coming project by project requesting approval [for funding],” said RVC Division 1 Coun. Kevin Hanson. “The idea here was to consolidate that into one lump sum–the chambers can now plan their year with some financial certainty.”
Olsen said she’s excited for what the grant program means for individual chambers of commerce. Like many community business groups in RVC, the Bragg Creek Chamber of Commerce is a volunteer-run organization whose membership fees went towards supporting area businesses.
According to Olsen, there was no money allocated by the County for tourism because there is no RVC tourism department, so it ultimately fell to the individual chambers to fulfill the role by paying for things like maps, benches, and outside washrooms. Chambers can now use the new grant program to help cover those expenses.
“When you have a strategic plan at a high level so that money is going towards something that makes sense and is not wasted … it makes for smart spending,” said Olsen.
