Business View Civil & Municipal - May 2023

137 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 5 LAC LA B I CHE COUNTY Mayor Paul Reutov describes, “We are a very diverse community, from business and industry to the people. We’ve got everything from forestry to oilfields, gas, beef, and grain agriculture. Diversity wise we’ve got several Indigenous communities around us all bordering our municipality. Along with that, there is a strong Lebanese community here, there’s a French community, a Filipino community, and so forth. So, it is a diverse cultural area here.” Tourism is big business in Lac La Biche, mainly due to the lakes and forests, the campgrounds, and other industry that surrounds them. Reutov notes, “Most of what we boast as the tourism side is the lakes, the fishing, the trails, anything to do with outdoor activity, we’ve got it all.” Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park is Alberta’s only provincial park of islands and a popular destination not only for those in the county but also those from further south, who flock to the area to enjoy the camping facilities and many recreational opportunities. “It’s one of the most unique campgrounds in Alberta,” boasts Reutov. This is one of the many outdoor parks and campgrounds throughout the community, many of which offer four- season access for a variety of experiences. Lac La Biche County also hosts events and festivals, such as the annual Winter Festival of Speed which takes place every February. The promotion of the county is done through partnerships with organizations such as Go East of Edmonton, Travel Alberta, and Travel Lakeland. An in-house communications team is also vital, and the county promotes the Lac La Biche Region through @LLBTourism on social media. It is a team effort, as Heather Stromquist, Manager of Economic Development and Tourism shares, “We collaborate a lot. We collaborate internally in our community and with the Chamber of Commerce, who operate our Visitor Information Center, as well as a lot of our tourism operators and our Indigenous communities as well.” Indigenous tourism is a growing industry, and Lac