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from the Government of Alberta’s Investment and Growth Fund helped close the deal. English Bay’s expansion into Stony Plain
will create 70 permanent positions and 90 temporary construction jobs.
The story is just one example of how the Edmonton region — the largest metropolitan region by area in Canada, of more than 9,400 square kilometres — has become a magnet for companies and investors looking for plentiful industrial land.
“We’ve got lots of space,” says Malcolm Bruce, CEO of Edmonton Global, a not-for- profit economic development agency that represents 14 regional municipalities in
the Edmonton region, to attract business investment. “So if people are looking for a place to build, or expand, this is a good place to start.”
Right now, the Edmonton region boasts about 11,000 acres of developable industrial space — and that’s only the land that’s already been designated as such.
Bruce points to the Alberta’s Industrial
RIGHT NOW, THE
EDMONTON REGION BOASTS ABOUT 11,000 ACRES OF DEVELOPABLE INDUSTRIAL SPACE – AND THAT’S ONLY THE LAND THAT’S ALREADY BEEN DESIGNATED AS SUCH.
Heartland, which is situated in the Northeast corner of the Edmonton metropolitan region (including Lamont county) — the second- largest industrial park in the world — that’s currently 582 square kilometres.
“Most of that’s not being used for industry right now — it’s being used for agriculture. But as more and more world-class, world- scale facilities come in, that land will be taken out of agricultural use and used for industrial purposes,” he says.
The Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board (EMRB) — a non-profit corporation established by the Province of Alberta, comprised of 13 municipal leaders from across the Edmonton Metropolitan Region — has a 30-year growth plan to 2044 that designates industrial, commercial, residential and agricultural land as the region’s population expands from 1.5 million people to an estimated 2.2 million by around 2040.
But the beauty of the 30-year plan is that land use evolution is being done responsibly and sustainably, with food security
considerations at the forefront. Approximately 1.7 million of the more
than two million acres of land in the Edmonton region is designated for primary agricultural land.
“The need to make sure we’re doing growth in a responsible and sustainable way and managing all the requirements, including the environment and agriculture, means that there’s been this coordinated effort amongst the regional municipalities to ensure that our growth is responsible,” Bruce says.
EMRB has a Regional Agriculture Master Plan (RAMP), the first-ever regional plan to manage land use for the future
of agriculture, which could lead to an estimated $10 billion increase in the region’s annual GDP in the next 10 years.
“It’s pretty world-leading. We are looked at, in many places, to come in and help them work through some of these things because we have this coordinated and robust planning capacity in the region.”
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