Revelstoke City wants to attract the high-tech industry and its employees to Revelstoke, and now with $100,00 in provincial funding to recruit a contractor to work on the city’s identified tech strategy goals, the city is one step closer.
The city received approval for $100,000 last week from the province’s Rural Dividend fund. These funds will be received if the CSRD (Columbia Shuswap Regional District) approves a contribution of $30,000 from the Economic Opportunity Fund.
“I think this is a great initiative that has the potential to further diversify the local economy,” director of community economic development Alan Mason said.
In 2015, Telus upgraded Revelstoke’s fibre optic connections for the majority of households and businesses in the community and, taking advantage of this, the city followed with developing a Technology Strategy.
“We’ve heard from a lot of people that work in tech sector that Revelstoke is great community, it has a great lifestyle with wonderful amenities, and it is the type of community that people would love to move to if they could work here,” Mason said.
“We’re intending to promote Revelstoke as a tech friendly place and promote business growth and increase employment.”
The city is currently advertising the role for a Technology Strategy Coordinator.
Specific Outcomes for Tech Strategy:
1. Developing and implementing a promotional strategy promoting the fact that there is broadband capacity in the community to help attract new technology companies to Revelstoke;
2. supporting existing technology companies to help them grow and hire new employees;
3. Developing and implementing a strategy to promote Revelstoke as an innovative and “tech friendly” community;
4. Work with the local school district to provide mentorship opportunities in the technology sector to help increase the number of new jobs available to our youth in the local technology sector and retain local youth in the community
5. Actively work to identify and target specific technology opportunities, e.g. a data centre, to locate to Revelstoke;
6. Identify specific barriers to growth for the technology sector and work to reduce these barriers; work with the Regional Science Councils to develop the sector.
7. In terms of specific job creation targets, by the end of the project term (November 30, 2018, the Coordinator will:
- increase the number of workers in the local technology sector by 100%;
- increase the number of companies involved in the technology sector by 50%;
- attract at least one “major” technology project or company to Revelstoke (10-20 employees);
- provide opportunities for a minimum of 20 youth to participate in a technology mentorship program; and
- provide employment opportunities for a minimum of 10 youth in the local technology sector.
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