The mayor brought messages of regional co-operation and planning to the St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce’s recent luncheon.
Crouse, firmly wearing his Capital Region Board chair “hat,” spoke about the regional board last Wednesday.
Though he was speaking as the board chair, he noted it’s hard to navigate between his priorities as St. Albert mayor and capital region board chair. Earlier last week at a special council meeting he said he now believes an elected board chair isn’t the ideal leader for the regional board.
He highlighted the need for planning and for collaboration.
“I believe that proper prior planning prevents poor performance,” Crouse told the business lunch crowd.
He started his speech speaking of Alberta hamlets that no longer exist, wondering why those places closed up shop while others have thrived.
He ended on the same but slightly more positive note, pointing to regional success stories such as Beaumont or Stony Plain and even St. Albert, as suburban cities and towns grow faster than Edmonton.
“Gibbons and Calmar are the next cities on the horizon,” he said.
He said there’s a need for an even stronger regional structure, and noted Alberta’s capital region is not yet ranked in the top tier of global cities or viewed as an international juggernaut.
“This region needs a successful Edmonton,” he said. He, of course, wants to see St. Albert successful as well, but said it isn’t as necessary.
He outlined the regional board’s makeup and role for the crowd, noting recent forays into the field of regional economic development.
They’re addressing issues like transit, the preservation of agriculture land, affordable housing and more, he said.
His speech, delivered the day before he cast a lone vote against the board initiating a review that could develop a way for members to leave, highlighted what he considered to be successful examples of capital region communities working together despite the “museum of differences” amongst the membership.
Crouse was asked questions about the twinning of Ray Gibbon Drive, and he said the road is eighth on the priority list for the board.
Other questions included queries about Villeneuve, the potential for amalgamation and the future of the region under the new NDP cabinet.
The chamber’s CEO and president Lynda Moffat took a few minutes to respond to Crouse’s speech, telling the members about how the region’s chambers are working togethger.
She said business people need stability to do well, and praised the CRB for managing to work past the natural animosity some of municipalities had harboured for each other.
The regional chambers understand the important of branding and marketing the region together, rather than separately.
“We need a brand and we need an identity,” Moffat said.
