By Steve Hubrecht
[email protected]

The village of Canal Flats is hiring a contractor to run a resident attraction, economic development and marketing program.

Village council voted during their Tuesday, May 25 meeting to direct village staff to award the contract to Rynic, an Alberta-based consultancy company specializing in community building projects. The company’s founder Chris Fields has extensive experience with Canal Flats, having worked on contract as the village’s economic development officer.

The contract is for $90,000, inclusive of $10,000 to be used for marketing and advertising.

Canal Flats chief administrative officer Adrian Bergles explained to council that the project is part of a provincial pilot program for resident attraction and that the village received three proposals from contractors interested in running the program. These proposals were graded based on a matrix, and Rynic’s proposal came out ahead of the other two.

Canal Flats mayor Karl Sterzer said that having seen Fields’ work as the economic development officer, he is confident that Fields will do a good job at resident attraction, noting that Fields had gone out of the way to help the village in the past, even doing so unpaid at times.

“I agree this is the right way to go,” added councillor Doug McCutcheon, citing the continuity that comes with Fields already being very familiar with Canal Flats, and the high quality of Fields’ work.