The hiring of Guy Boston as the city’s head of economic development four years ago caused a stir, to say the least.
After nearly a year of searching for the perfect jet-setting, smooth-talking salesman to schmooze businesses worldwide, many were left wondering if the city simply gave up its search and settled for who was available.
Four years later, Boston’s engineering background – the very thing that was called into question when he was hired – is being credited as his greatest attribute.
Boston was first hired as the head of economic development in St. Albert in June 2012.
His predecessor Larry Horncastle was fired in 2011 by then-manager Bill Holtby. Though Horncastle maintained excellent relations with local business owners, council of the day wanted to raise the portfolio of economic development.
“Five years ago, the strong emphasis and sense of urgency wasn’t necessarily there and that was the change that council wanted. I can say there is a way different perspective around economic development pervasive through the corporation,” said interim city manager Chris Jardine.
This change in perspective is what Boston considers his biggest accomplishment as he prepares to leave his role at the end of this month.
“I’m very proud about how we’ve rebranded economic development internal to the city,” he said. “It was two four-letter words before. It was always seen as something annoying to the rest of the corporation … The whole corporation now understands that everyone has a role to play in this. Without that rebranding we’d be fighting a battle.”
This is where Boston’s vast engineering background came in.
As the former head of engineering for the city, Boston had an intimate understanding of how to set the physical and legislative environment necessary to economic development, such as land use, servicing and land availability.
“He brought that to the table and connected those dots very well. Now we know that to move things forward there needs to be high emphasis on the integration between economic development, planning and engineering and other city services or it won’t be successful,” said Jardine.
Boston was also able to bring in a number of new players into St. Albert, such as Cape Construction, a B.C.-based company that has never done business in the Edmonton region before; GWL and Amacon, who are both investing in St. Albert for the first time.
He is also credited for securing the new Alberta Gaming and Liquor Corporation warehouse in Campbell Park.
Boston’s engaging personality and his willingness to listen allowed him to foster good relationships and attract outside investors.
There have been some obvious hiccups along the way – namely Project 9, the weak link in St. Albert’s sanitary sewer system that is holding up a range of development opportunities in the city’s west.
“I got more people excited in St. Albert faster than what the original plan was,” he said. “We have people, that are committed now, who are a little bit angry that we weren’t able to meet their pace of development and their business plan and we’re going to have to recover from that.”
In an effort to keep economic development at the helm, the city has put in a number of mechanisms, such as a cross-organizational committee that brings together staff from engineering, planning, economic development and Build St. Albert on a regular basis.
Time is set aside quarterly for senior leadership to discuss economic development. A new council policy, which will be brought to council in the fall, will also promote continuity.
Despite these efforts, Boston can’t help but worry about St. Albert’s economic future.
St. Albert council has a propensity to fall on its own sword during debates surrounding development and this can sometimes leave a bad taste in developers’ mouths.
“If an investor feels that the tension or that the environment isn’t right, they make decisions that sometimes we aren’t happy with,” said Boston.
It will fall on his replacement to continue to foster and grow these relationships so that St. Albert continues to be a preferred location for business and development.
Now that the foundation has been laid for economic development, Boston’s role is being slightly re-jigged. Instead of an executive director position, the new hire will be the director of economic development.
“Now that we’re more established we’re going to take a slight step back,” said Jardine.
The director of economic development will still report directly to the city manager, but won’t have the same responsibilities as the city’s senior leadership.
This will free up time for this individual to focus on the task at hand rather than attend dozens of extra meetings.
“For Guy, that’s been a bit of a distraction. His work is out in the community,” said Jardine.
The job posting is now closed and interviews were conducted last week. The city has identified a preferred candidate and is currently in the process of making an offer. An announcement could be made as early as this week.
According to Jardine the individual has a strong background in economic development.
The key expectation from the mayor’s perspective is that the new director put more structure around the Employment Lands.
“Someone needs to take that from bare barley fields to a plan,” said Nolan Crouse.
Boston in the meantime is going back to his roots. It was announced Thursday he would be joining City of Edmonton ranks as the manager of LRT delivery. He will be responsible for the planning, design of construction of the whole LRT network.
An engineer by trade, Boston began his professional career at CN as a planning and inspection engineer, before turning to civil service. Throughout his 14 years at the City of Edmonton he held many positions, including project manager of the South LRT construction.
“I was building the LRT when I was lured away to St. Albert in 2003,” he said.
