All this week on Moose Mornings with Tim on Moose FM, the topic of discussion is “Growing the town – how to attract and retain new people”.
Cochrane Mayor Denis Clement says in the short term, his town is participating in a number of booths at the upcoming sportsman show, called “Summer Employment Education Development Service”, aimed at youth.
“Believe it or not,” Clement tells My Cochrane Now Dot Com, “our community has more jobs for young people than young people that are available.”
A big part of the challenge is getting young Cochranites to stay, or come back after post-secondary education.
“There are more opportunities in the North and the North is – let’s say we’re holding our own,” says the mayor. “We’re not growing but we’re certainly holding our own and trying to attract the young people back is a great challenge throughout every community in the North.”
And in the long term, the economic development committee is formulating strategy to attract and keep people of all ages.
“On that committee we have business, you have industry, you have government agencies, getting their ideas together and trying to come up with a long term game plan to try to attract people in the North and keep our people in the North.”
The mayor borrows from the provincial government by saying that Cochrane is open for business.