By CHAT News Today

Province creates team to attract international business headquarters to Alberta

Sep 25, 2017 | 3:49 PM

EDMONTON — The provincial government has created a committee with the goal of helping Alberta cities attract headquarters for international businesses.

In a news conference Monday, Premier Rachel Notley announced the create of the Amazon HQ2 Leadership team, with the goal of attracting Amazon’s second headquarters to Alberta.

“There’s a reason Alberta is home to the highest concentration of international headquarters in Canada,” Notley said in a statement. “We have the youngest, best-educated and most productive workforce in the country. We also have the most competitive costs to do business – including our universal health-care access. We’ve brought this team together to focus on creating maximum benefit for Albertans, because we know that showcasing our cities to the world means new economic opportunities here at home.”

Minister of Economic Development and Trade Deron Bilous is on the committee, which is headed up by Bill Sembo, who oversaw the creation of Cenovus Energy and Nexen.

“We’ve seen Cavendish, Google, RocketSpace and Champion make important expansions in our province this year as we work to grow and diversify our economy,” said Bilous in a statement. “I’ve met with Amazon executives directly, and they’ve been clear that a Team Alberta approach is important to demonstrate our government is serious about helping them expand here too.”

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The team will use their extensive networks to build a national and international profile for Alberta bids for businesses. The team will focus on the province’s quality of life, its taxation, its workforce, health care and infrastructure.

“We can compete with many other jurisdictions when it comes to attracting leading businesses to Alberta, “Sembo said in the news release. “In Alberta, one discovers everybody is building, everything is new; nothing is beyond improvement and our horizons are limitless.

“Albertans get things done! The team and I will use our collective networks, experiences and determination to support our cities’ bids – we’re united in a view that Alberta is the best place to invest and do business.”

Other members of the team include Mary Moran, the president and CEO of Calgary Economic Development, Glen Vanstone with the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, University of Alberta president David Turpin, University of Calgary president Elizabeth Cannon, Invest Alberta executive director Dwayne Dreger, and Alberta Innovates CEO Laura J. Kilcrease.