Page 55 - BEC / DEC / 2021

“Town officials take great pride in their

organizational culture focused on working together

across department lines to support and nurture the
business community,” he says. “The Town actively

works to analyze its own operations to reduce
red tape, and its development team makes itself

accessible to the business community well outside

of standard office hours. The Town’s flexible,
DH Industrial customer-service oriented approach to serving the

business community ensures that businesses in
Town can spend less time worrying about forms,

permits, and regulations and more time focused on

doing what they do best; running their business.”

Close proximity to Lethbridge is obviously a

major draw for Coaldale, adds Mills. “For years,
this allowed for Coaldale to grow in the standard

“bedroom community” model. In more recent

years, Coaldale has worked to change this dynamic
through a variety of initiatives and maintaining

a commitment to low commercial taxes; this
commitment has meant that for several years now

commercial taxes in Coaldale have been less than

half those of Lethbridge. As the businesses in the
region have become more aware of this (along

with Coaldale’s commitment to red tape reduction)
they have begun to steadily move to invest in the

community; for several years now the rate of non-

residential investment in Town has outpaced its still
substantial residential growth.”

DEC 2021 | BUSINESS ELITE CANADA 55