By Sheldon Spackman

Road To Recovery

Innisfail council approves renewed prosperity framework

Jun 4, 2020 | 4:30 PM

Wheels are now in motion to get the Town of Innisfail back on track as communities across the province plan for a ‘new normal’ during the relaunch of Alberta’s economy from the COVID-19 pandemic.

On May 25, council approved a renewed prosperity framework entitled, Moving Forward: A Path to Renewed Prosperity – described by Town officials as a new action-based recovery plan for the community.

Ken Kowalchuk, communications coordinator with the Town of Innisfail, says the Framework was created following the identification of three focus areas approved by council on May 11, those being economic development recovery and relaunch, Town operations and service delivery, and community and social services.

“From the economic side of things, the Town has hired a consultant, 13 Ways,” he explains. “They are going to lead us through our economic recovery plan. An initial visioning session was held with council, senior management and administration on May 27, and from that meeting, the consultant has taken the details and they will build out that economic recovery strategy.”

From a Town operations and service delivery perspective, Kowalchuk says some of the Town’s basic services have already been adjusted to reflect the economic impacts of COVID-19.

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“For example, council decided not to go ahead with some of our annual plantings this year, that was a cost saving measure,” says Kowalchuk. “With the service levels, we’re constantly reviewing those and those are kind of guided by provincial guidelines. So as the provincial restrictions are lifted, we will be able to bring more and more of our services online.”

Then from a community and social services perspective, Kowalchuk says their focus is on creating awareness around current support services already in place.

“Those will be done primarily through the Town’s FCSS coordinator,” he explains. “She can help individuals by putting them in touch with the services they need.”

Town officials say the renewed prosperity framework has been developed to evolve as the characteristics of the global pandemic change, while elements of the plan are anticipated to become more pertinent as the government moves through its three recovery phases.

“A lot of that will be working within those provincial guidelines to bring services back on line,” remarks Kowalchuk. “There are services that we don’t have right now, for example, our facilities. As those phases are rolled out, we will take a look at them and see if we’re in a position to maybe bring some of our services back on line.”

“The pieces are coming a little bit at a time, but at least we have something,” he continues. “We have a plan, and we’ve put the pieces in place to build this out and to have an actual roadmap to recovery.”