County explores incentives to attract business

The county is exploring ideas for establishing business incentives or tax deferrals to promote business development.

“I’m running this past council to see if you have an appetite for this,” said CAO Bob Beck. “We have some incentives in the industrial park regarding land sales. But the municipal sustainability plan says it can be done anywhere in the county.”

Included in the April 5 report to the committee of the whole was a 2013 Business Incentive Grant Bylaw from Camrose County, as well as the Town of Tofield’s Tax Incentive Policy, the M.D. of Opportunity Development Incentive Grant, the Town of Thorsby’s Commercial Development Incentive Policy, and the Town of St. Paul’s Incentive Bylaw.

“As the committee can see from the policies, some form of incentive or grants are common throughout Alberta, and even counties similar to us (Camrose County) have used incentive programs to encourage new development,” Beck stated in his report.

For more see the April 19/17 Mercury