U of L student shares study on Lethbridge County’s parks

Among the concerns found were that a few of the industrial parks within the county’s district “appear to reflect thoughtful planning and design, while others were developed incrementally and haphazardly.”

Blackburn also found that a lack of proper infrastructure features and systems on-site could eventually lead to environmental deterioration, which in turn makes those areas unattractive to investors.

He said a solution could simply come down to more cooperation and communication with landowners.

“[There’s] probably just the need for collaborative partnerships or public-private partnerships and industrial symbiotic relationships and [a focus on] how we can minimalize environmental deterioration and make profit or economic gains from that,” he said.

However, before making any decisions, Blackburn said it’s important to note two processes that concern commercial and industrial economic development: collaborative frameworks and industrial symbiosis.

Collaborative frameworks are essentially formal or informal agreements and partnerships between governments, stakeholders and communities.

“Without collaborative relationships, we would not be able to develop – period,” Blackburn said in his presentation to council.

Industrial symbiosis builds on the collaborative relationships and results in the creation of economic and environmental benefits for two or more parties working together.

In his presentation, Blackburn proposed a Highway 3 Agri-food Corridor as a potential future project for the county, similar to the Junction 42 project in Red Deer County.

It would be a development on the section of Highway 3 that lies between Lethbridge and Coaldale. It would provide service to freight trucks and heavy-duty units that pass along that stretch each day.

He said this could lead to a potential partnership between Lethbridge County and the Town of Coaldale.

APPLIED STUDIES

The University of Lethbridge’s Co-op and Applied Studies programs give students the chance to learn in the field, according to Program Coordinator and Instructor Stacey Gaudette-Sharp.

“We at the University of Lethbridge are actually really great at doing more integrated learning. It’s an idea that’s kind of exploding across the country right now. [We have] two programs in work integrated learning at the University of Lethbridge – we do co-operative education as well as the Applied Studies program, which is a very unique program,” she said.

Essentially, what instructors do is create a course catered to a student’s field of interest.

She said they’ve had a strong working relationship with the Lethbridge County for the last few years.

Applied Studies opportunities are available to the entire Faculty of Arts and Science.

“That’s something between 42 or 45 off disciplines. We do them for the Faculty of Management, or the Dhillon School of Business, we do them for Fine Arts students, pretty much any faculty on campus except for Social Work,” Gaudette-Sharp said.

“We’re very excited to be able to offer these opportunities and I think it’s a really interesting way for students to get a degree experience that is unique and specific to their own interests.”

For more on Applied Studies at the University of Lethbridge, visit uleth.ca.

by Justin Goulet

U of L student shares study on Lethbridge County’s parks

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