County of Stettler council will offer its proposed economic dashboard project to a Sylvan Lake contractor after receiving interest from across North America in the opportunity. The resolution was passed at the Aug. 13 regular meeting of council.

Councillors heard a presentation from Manager of Strategic Initiatives Kristie Vallet regarding tender results for the county’s proposed economic and skills development dashboard project.

“In alignment with council’s strategic priority three revenue growth, to ensure long-term stability, we will develop and implement an economic development plan that identifies opportunities for growth, diversification, and our critical regional assets which prepare us for businesses and industries to come that align with regional priorities,” stated the staff memo to council.

“Administration successfully secured funding through the Small Community Opportunity Program for the development of an economic and skills development dashboard on the county’s website.

“This dashboard will provide users with valuable information related to economic development support within the county, including (but not limited to) an inventory of the county’s economic assets, major transportation routes and options for the transport of goods.

“In addition, the dashboard, in collaboration with Community Futures East Parkland, will offer users access to small business training and skills development workshops to support entrepreneurship and business growth. ”

Vallet stated during her presentation that although the submission deadline was extended two weeks, the county ended up being happy with proposals. “We were quite pleased with what we seen for proposals,” she said to council. She noted proposals came in from contractors across North America and most of them seemed to understand the project’s scope.

“Proposals were received from 17 contractors from across Canada and the United States,” stated the staff memo. “A two-person technical evaluation committee assessed each submission using a weighted scoring matrix based on the following criteria: experience and qualifications, understanding the project, approach and methodology, technical capacity, cost and value and references and past performance.”

Vallet noted that county staff evaluated the proposals against these requirements and came away with a preferred candidate: C4ner Consulting of Sylvan Lake, which offered to develop the dashboard for $99,518.65.

It was noted at the meeting councillors were informed in Dec., 2024 that the County of Stettler had received a $90,000 provincial government grant for this project.

Coun. Ernie Gendre asked where the other $10,000 was coming from. Vallet responded the County of Stettler is required to contribute and councillors already decided it will come from the Rural Development Fund.

Coun. James Nibourg asked if the Stettler Regional Board of Trade (BOT) will be involved in this project, as it appears some of what will be included is in the BOT’s area of expertise. Vallet answered that when the project was conceived Parkland Community Futures was intended as a partner. However, Vallet stated the proposed contractor has already noted it intends to gather input from stakeholders on the dashboard project and since the BOT is a stakeholder, it should contribute.

Vallet pointed out the contractor has already stated that stakeholder input will be reflected in the dashboard.

Councillors unanimously awarded the contract for the development of an economic and skills development dashboard to C4ner Consulting of Sylvan Lake for a total project cost of $99,518.65 plus GST.