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Committee pitches big box store proposal
Chris Clegg
for Spotlight
A member of High Prairie town council’s economic development pursuit committee is worried over the closure of several stores the last few weeks and wants to do something about it.
Barry Sharkawi once again pitched the idea of enticing big box stores such as Costco and Wal-Mart to open businesses in High Prairie at the committee’s Jan. 25 meeting.
“We don’t like to see any stores shutting down,” says Barry Sharkawi. “Things are getting really tight for us in High Prairie.”
Sharkawi remembers times when shoppers couldn’t find a parking place in High Prairie. He says all that changed when the big box stores began building around High Prairie in Grande Prairie, Peace River and Slave Lake.
“Since those stores opened in Slave Lake. . .” he says, adding shoppers want choices and better prices.
“And I don’t blame them,” says Sharkawi. “For us to catch these people, we have to bring them back.
“If you see our town on weekends, you’d feel bad for us,” he added later in the meeting.
Sharkawi says if big box stores come to town, other businesses follow.
“If one store comes here I guarantee you another one will come,” he says. Maybe that will be a start for us.”
At the committee’s last meeting, it was agreed to send Costco a letter after Sharkawi’s suggested to offer them free land and a couple years municipal tax break.
Sharkawi reiterated his stand Jan. 25.
“What’s the plan and what’s it going to be?” he asked.
Lesser Slave Lake Regional Economic Alliance director Greg Radstaak says there are other factors affecting High Prairie economically.
“There are fundamental issues why the town is slow,” he says. “The (Tolko) mill closure, agriculture and forestry. The recession has hit this community hard.
“I think it will be a challenge to attract a big box store here, but maybe it’s worth a crack.”
Sharkawi disagreed saying at least they had to try. He alluded to the Seal Lake Road dream being dead several years ago before he and Jeff Burgar got it back on track.
“It was a dream then, now it’s done,” he says. “We have to try. If we don’t try, no one else will help us.”
Town of High Prairie CAO John Eriksson did not want the committee and council offering tax breaks and free land. Rather, he said, those ploys should be left for negotiations.
Committee member Laurie Keay favoured incentives.
“We feel stagnant as a town,” she says of the community. “That’s the feeling.”
Rather than cite specific incentives, the committee agreed to write big box stores asking them what incentives it would take for them to build in High Prairie.
High Prairie’s economic development officer Brian Holmberg was ready to do his part and meet with big box store reps.
“I m ready to go to Halifax, Calgary, Edmonton, whatever it takes,” he says.
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