Regional Economic Development

The Lacombe County Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) Project is a County-wide effort that recognizes personal, confidential business surveys as a way to:

1. Identify the needs, concerns, and opportunities of existing local businesses so that, where appropriate, action can be taken.
2. Learn the future plans of the area’s local businesses with respect to expansion, relocation, and/or retention and assess where assistance can be provided.
3. Demonstrate the County’s pro-business attitude and develop an effective means of communication.

Think of the Lacombe County BRE project like a business census.

A final project report presenting high-level findings with action plan recommendations will be developed and made available following the data collection and used to plan future economic development activities for Lacombe County.

Existing businesses are already invested in the community

It’s important to leverage the fact that existing businesses are already established and invested in the community. Studies have shown that anywhere between 74% and 90% of new jobs within a community come from existing businesses. Furthermore, it is much easier and less expensive for a community to retain existing businesses than attract new ones.

Business Expansion and Retention projects can provide an early warning system

Businesses in every community close each year for a variety of reasons. Some of these closures could be averted if the businesses were connected with the existing support resources. The County’s Economic Development Team can help guide businesses to these resources or provide support for these services to our county’s businesses.

Lacombe County will be using the data from this current survey to analyze data pertaining to local businesses.  As time goes on, Lacombe County will continue to issue surveys to keep up with different trends, offering different supports and keeping engaged with our local businesses.