Ashley Charles. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Partnership for growth

Ashley Charles named CEO of regional economic development alliance

Jan 29, 2020 | 5:42 PM

The Prince Albert region’s new economic development organization has named a CEO.

Ashley Charles comes to the position with years of experience in management, business and human resources, primarily with the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. Under the umbrella of Kitsaki Management Limited Partnership she was part of the team that founded the company known today as Kitsaki Vegetation Services.

“That project alone created 250 jobs which I got to manage. I was the human resource manager,” she told paNOW.

The Prince Albert Regional Economic Development Alliance (PREDA) was formed last year. Its founding members are the town of Shellbrook, the rural municipalities of Prince Albert and Buckland, Peter Ballantyne Developments Limited Partnership, Muskoday First Nation and the City of Prince Albert.

The organization aims to support and grow business and industry in the region and increase tourism.

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“When you think of economic development, it’s ultimately a process of creating wealth from which many communities benefit,” Charles said. “But add community to that, now we can make [the] community a better place to live and work. Combine them both, wealth creation and healthy communities, it will generate regional growth.”

P.A. contributes around $100,000 annually to PREDA.

Craig Guidinger, Director of Planning and Development with the city of P.A., explained the organization currently has around $140,000, but will be looking for grant opportunities and sponsorships to supplement that.

One of Charles’ first tasks will be to work with PAREDA board members to determine the organization’s priorities and programs.

“The biggest thing right at the beginning is just data collection,” Guidinger said. “Finding out the needs of our work force, land availability, those types of things so there’s a lot of research that needs to be done.”

Editor’s note: a previous version of this story misspelled Kitsaki as Katsaki.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom