Alberta business climate should be more open and welcoming

Doing business in Alberta is becoming harder and harder in recent years due to the economic downturn without adding social licence concerns into the equation. Add the digitus dei, “the finger of god,” which is social licence, and it is becoming darn near impossible to start any type of intensive business operation in modern day Alberta if you are not in the energy industry.

 

Agriculture seems to be particularly hard done by in this respect. Try to establish any kind of feedlot, dairy farm, greenhouse, etc., and you will quickly find people coming forward to complain about every little aspect of it. The smell, the unsightliness, the lighting, the standards of hormone and chemical usage, the disturbance to landscape or the potential for property devaluation. Valid concerns, but not grounds for the hysteria we sometimes see when these things come up for public hearing and debate. After all, we all like to eat, don’t we? Would you rather be eating your veggies off a three-day old boat from China at the sufferance of an American multinational, or from a responsible local grower?

 

Agriculture built this country, and it might be the only saving grace in the Alberta economy right now. Time for some people to get off their high horses and take a broader view. That is, if they know one end of the horse from the other in the first place.

 

Even on a much smaller scale within the city itself, the business climate is not as conducive as it could be. High taxes, uncertainties about the permitting process, and questions about provincial and federal government wage and taxation policies are big issues. 

 

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.