Municipal leaders in central Alberta are backing a three-year regional strategy designed to present communities to investors as a single economic area while preserving local opportunities.

Mayors and reeves met in Innisfail this month to discuss the role of the Central Alberta Economic Partnership and identify priorities that cross municipal boundaries.

The leaders placed investment promotion and government advocacy at the centre of the organization’s work.

The plan calls for marketing the region in Canada and abroad while pressing governments and other decision-makers on infrastructure, projects and policies tied to competitiveness.

The partnership describes central Alberta as the province’s third-largest regional economy. Its investment pitch covers transportation and logistics, agriculture, agricultural technology, food processing, conventional and alternative energy, carbon capture, advanced manufacturing and emerging technologies.

Team Central Alberta will serve as the plan’s regional marketing brand. It is intended to connect municipalities, businesses, post-secondary institutions and other organizations when presenting opportunities to prospective investors.

For smaller communities, the regional approach is meant to provide market visibility that can be difficult to build independently. Individual municipalities would still present their own land, labour, infrastructure and development opportunities within the broader regional pitch.

The plan also calls for a regional data hub, community and regional investor-readiness profiles, land-development and investment-attraction work and stronger relationships with governments and industry.

CAEP lists five objectives for the three-year period: building trust and producing visible results, developing the data hub, attracting investment through Team Central Alberta, strengthening member capacity and becoming financially independent.

The organization says it will report performance indicators at its spring and fall general meetings. Those report cards will be important because the strategy announcement does not, by itself, identify a secured investment, construction commitment or new funding total.

The partnership is also discussing how its work can complement Red Deer D.R.I.V.E., the city’s economic development organization. Clear roles could help avoid duplication while giving the region a stronger collective presence.

The next test will be whether the shared marketing effort produces qualified investor leads, infrastructure commitments and projects that create measurable benefits across urban and rural member communities.