Arborg, the Municipality of Bifrost-Riverton, and the Chamber of Commerce are discussing ways to boost economic activity. Arborg's Council heard from Arborg and District Chamber of Commerce Chair Owen Eyolfsen at their last meeting, as he discussed the region's business development incentive programs. Arborg Mayor Randy Sigurdson says the town's current program sees new, large businesses given 50 per cent off the municipal portion of their tax bills for three years. Sigurdson says while their current program has been quite successful, he feels it's important to review the economic development incentive from time to time.

"It's good to take a look at the different variations of these incentive programs and see what might work the best for us, not just to relocate or expand to Arborg, but also for existing businesses that might want to expand."

Sigurdson notes because the town of Arborg is located within the Municipality of Bifrost Riverton, they do have some shared land in their industrial park. However, Bifrost-Riverton currently has a slightly different development incentive model in place, something Sigurdson hopes changing their incentive would address. He notes they're setting up meetings with stakeholders to discuss the issue, in hopes of changing the program to increase its success.

"We're sort of analyzing it, talking about it, and we want to talk to our neighbouring municipality, Bifrost, who we share services with. We'll have to see how that progresses. We'll be meeting with different groups including Bifrost to see how this will go, or how we should deal with this. We want to make sure we're doing the right thing."

Sigurdson says the goal of any possible changes would be to spur further economic development in the region, in hopes of creating a stronger business community.