Who will promote the area when the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31?
Lac La Biche County Council is currently undecided about whether to extend their tourism and marketing contract – which expires at the end of the year – with Community Futures.
At the Nov. 1 Lac La Biche County Council meeting, Community Futures general manager Karen Gingras tried to persuade the council to try to resolve the issue as soon as possible in hopes that they might see fit to extend the contract for a few more months.
Council has been pursuing the option of creating their own Economic Development Authority (EDA) to deal with tourism and marketing.
Gingras told council she was concerned the contract would end before the establishment of an EDA to ultimately take over the tourism duties that Community Futures currently holds.
“We received a letter informing us that our contract with the county was to be extended until Dec. 31 with the promise that an EDA board would be created by the time that the contract ends,” Gingras said. “As of now there has yet to be such a board. I propose extending our contract until Sept. 30, 2012 because I would hate to see tourism go to the wayside.”
The proposed extension would allow the staff at Community Futures to continue their work on the projects already underway, which would make the transition from Community Futures to the proposed EDA much smoother, Gingras said.
Another reason behind the Gingras’ presentation is the current contract that Community Futures holds with the municipality is unsigned, amongst other issues to be worked out with it.
Gingras told the Post after the meeting she was surprised that Councillors didn’t “grill” her more.
“I’m surprised that no one really asked questions,” Gingras noted. “I presented at City Council in Edmonton and got grilled and was expecting the same.”
Upon Gingras’ departure from the meeting, council decided to seek further information from their administration on what Community Futures has done for the County recently and what it can offer in the future.
According to Community Futures documents, the $71,000 contributed by the municipality is leveraged to create more than two times that amount in marketing value.
Councillor John Nowak was concerned that the current $71,000 contract with Community Futures is not necessarily getting all its money’s worth for the County.
“I have a hard time supporting this without getting real value for our dollar,” Nowak said.
Following Nowak’s comment, and after other council members showed similar concerns, a motion was passed that
council would advise Community Futures, as well as other community groups who have recently been interested in the establishment of an EDA, that such an authority is currently being worked on and that Council has taken the lead on the project which is currently in its final stages.
As of press time, Gingras had yet to hear back from Council, who informed her that she would be notified one way or the other in short time.
