Lac La Biche developer Rik Nikoniuk has to explain the opportunities he sees in the local region far more often than he would like.
Lac La Biche developer Rik Nikoniuk has to explain the opportunities he sees in the local region far more often than he would like.
If he doesn’ t, many of his conversations with people outside the area become debates over the oilsands and worries about economic difficulties based on the troubled oil sector.
It’ s a shame more people don’ t realize there’ s a lot going on in northeastern Alberta besides oil and gas extraction, he said, adding that while challenges do exist because of that industry’ s prevalence, they don’ t dominate this community’ s future.
“As soon as you say ‘oilsands,’ people automatically default to Fort McMurray,” said Nikoniuk, who’ s in the process of developing a large residential subdivision east of Lac La Biche. “It’ s not all doom and gloom out here.”
On several occasions, the local homebuilder has talked to businesspeople in Edmonton, Calgary and elsewhere-and no matter how hard he insists there are opportunities in the Lac La Biche region, his remarks don’ t seem to make it past a wall of misconceptions.
At a recent Chamber of Commerce directors’ meeting, local business leaders including Nikoniuk discussed how to counter some of the negative views that people near and far have about this community.
Chamber vice-president Bill Britton, who owns Britton’ s Your Independent Grocer, said people won’ t want to start or expand businesses in the area if they have bad impressions.
Nikoniuk said the largest misconception people have is that there’ s not much good going on. He doesn’ t think he should have to defend his choice to bring more development to this community.
“We’ re a damn good little community,” he said. “We have our issues but we’ re as good a place as any.”
That ill-founded belief seems to apply to some community members, too, he said, prompting other members of the Chamber to suggest options for highlighting the area to the outside world.
Dr. Mohammad Al-Bekai, who owns Generations Eye Care, pitched the idea of a social media hashtag to promote the community. The off-the-cuff example he used was #laclabichebeautiful-but if anyone else can think of a catchier phrase, they’ re free to run with it, he said.
“I think it would give people some pride,” said the optometrist.
He himself has only lived in the Lac La Biche area for a few years, he said, but he likes the community and others who feel the same way need to show that they do, too.
He’ s aware there are complaints aplenty, on social media and in other forums, but he’ s not sure if the criticisms reflect how people truly feel about the place.
“I don’ t know if anybody really hates the town,” he said. “I just think maybe they’ re not showing their love for it. I think that’ s what this town is lacking.”
The community’ s internal workings are one thing, but it will take a concerted approach to convince the rest of the world that the Lac La Biche area is worth investing in, Nikoniuk said.
Chamber president Ron Briscoe wasn’ t at the directors’ meeting in January, and even though he intends to resign in March to move to another municipality, he said he’ s never failed to tout this community at every opportunity.
“I’ ve always told anyone who’ ll listen that Lac La Biche County is the most beautiful rural area in the entire province, and that’ s coming from someone who’ s lived in Cardston and High Level and everywhere in between,” said Briscoe. “No other rural area has what we have. My family and I will miss it tremendously.”
Nikoniuk said he wants active discussions between the Chamber and other stakeholder organizations, like the Region One Aboriginal Business Association (ROABA), Lac La Biche County and Community Futures Lac La Biche.
“If we go in with a full deck instead of half a deck, we’ ll have a much better chance,” he said.
Specific initiatives are still being considered.
