Business friendly policies are key to building community vibrancy.

Look no further than the side of rink boards across any local prairie hockey arena. Whether it is corporate sponsorship in NHL arenas or smaller business supporting the local team, it is clear evidence of the importance of commerce to community vibrancy.

Businesses create jobs, pay taxes, invest in the province and give back to their communities. As businesses prosper so do communities and households. Much of the reason this relationship between commerce and community has worked especially well in this province is because Alberta has always encouraged and rewarded bold business decisions.

Our frontier spirit has helped build a resilient economy on a winning formula of ingenuity, hard work, self-reliance, independence and dogged persistence to solve any challenge in our way. Whether it was settlers who worked the hard soil and battled the elements to build a world-class agriculture industry or the technology and innovation that went into turning sand into the third largest oil reserves in the world, Alberta risk-takers have always defied the odds – and won.