At the Sherwood Park & District Chamber of Commerce’s Luncheon & General Meeting members and dignitaries enjoyed a delicious lunch, prepared by the Clarion Hotel & Conference Centre. Today’s luncheon was sponsored by Innovative Mortgage /ATB . 

We welcomed seven new Chamber Members at our meeting today: Alberta Party, Changing Spaces Design Group Ltd., Towne & Countree Kitchens, Towne Renovations Ltd., Dirty Business Cleaning, Dominion Lending Centres Lender Direct, KNM Management Ltd., MH Surveys, and OCanada Painting Contractors.

Our keynote speaker was Gerry Gabinet, Director of Economic Development and Tourism at Strathcona County. He has worked with and led a committed economic development team of nine people for the past seventeen years. Prior to working as Director at Strathcona County, Gerry worked at Parkland County as Coordinator of Business Development for four years. Gerry has a strong history in marketing, having worked in the consumer goods industry for Proctor & Gamble and Molson’s Brewery. He has been involved with commercial and industrial real estate, working with Dynafour Real Estate and J.J. Barnicke Real Estate Limited.

Gerry has worked on major business attraction projects within Strathcona County. These include: Costco, Centre in the Park, Emerald Hills and Alberta’s industrial Heartland (Suncor, MEG, Sasol, Williams, Plains Midstream, Keyera, Shell, TransCanada, Kinder Morgan, Gibsons, Imperial and Inter Pipeline).

In 2015, Gerry won the Economic Developer of the Year award from Economic Developers Alberta (EDA) – Alberta’s leading economic development network. Gerry received another award from EDA Alberta as Honorary Life Member (HLM) for his work with the association in mentoring Economic Development Officers  (EDO) in the province and commitment to EDA Alberta. In addition, Gerry has served many organizations from across Alberta, Western Canada and North America. These include: Greater Edmonton Economic Development Team (Chairman), Economic Developers Alberta (Director, Chair of Annual Conference 2012 – 2013), Economic Developers Association Canada (2018-19 President), Pacific Northwest Economic Development Council (Past-President), International Economic Development Council (IEDC), International Council for Shopping Centres (ICSC), and Alberta First. He is also on the Board of Govenors for Commissionaires Northern Alberta, a $60 million not-for-profit organization employing veterans from Canadian Armed Forces and the RCMP.

Gerry gave us an optimistic update about Strathcona County’s 2020 GDP growth, with housing prices remaining steady and competitive residential rental rates. He advised that our economy is starting to show signs of diversification, especially in value-added products and that we can expect more petrochemical projects to be announced in 2020.  You can download his presentation here.

We would like to thank the following Dignitaries who attended our luncheon today:

  • Mayor Rod Frank
  • Councillor Linton Delainey
  • Councillor Glen Lawrence
  • Councillor Robert Parks
  • Councillor Paul Smith
  • Councillor Bill Tonita

And from the Town of Bruderheim,

  • Deputy Mayor Judy Schueler
  • CAO Patty Podoborozny

We would also the following businesses who donated door prizes: Innovative Mortgage Solutions, GSS Integrated Energy, Shig’s Flowers, and Strathcona County.

Finally, a big thank you to all of our brave Chamber Members & guests who braved today’s extreme cold to hear Mr. Gabinet talk today.

Our next chamber luncheon will be February 19, 2020.