The Province of Alberta has recently announced that it is funding a study to “receive recommendations on how the province can best support its seven regional agricultural societies.”
Alberta has seven regional agricultural societies. These are located in Camrose, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, Lloydminster, Medicine Hat, Olds, and Red Deer. There is one major Ag Society in Calgary, and 283 primary agricultural societies, including the brand-new River Valley Ag Society in Hinton.
Each type of agricultural society receives funding on three different levels, with 2024 funding at $11.5 million, which included $2.8 million to the seven regional societies.
The province says that, “Regional agricultural societies are made up of Albertans who genuinely love their communities.
They develop educational programs, organize major community or special events and provide services based on community needs. They run major facilities like trade centres and exhibition grounds for their people to enjoy.
“To determine how best to support regional agricultural societies and the work they do into the future, the Government of Alberta has hired Deloitte to provide recommendations.”
“Regional agricultural societies are a huge part of Alberta communities and a lot has changed since they were established more than a century ago. We know they do great work. Now we need to understand their challenges and opportunities to better position our agriculture sector and rural communities for success,” says RJ Sigurdson, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation.
The agricultural societies within Flagstaff County are considered primary ag societies, and will not be subject to this review.
Flagstaff County distributes its annual recreation grant, $641,268 through the region’s primary agricultural societies each year, with grant totals determined through a formula based on population.
Most recently, the Alliance Ag Society received $22,625; Daysland received $107,537; Forestburg received $109,990; Galahad received $14,447; Hardisty received $74,690; Heisler received $18,400; Killam received $125,119; Lougheed received $30,666; Sedgewick received $103,721; and Strome received $34,074.
These funds are not designated for use by the Ag Society, but each Society is tasked with accepting applications for a share of the recreation funding by local organizations and recreational facilities, acting as a flow-through organization.
Each Ag Society must follow Flagstaff County’s guidelines; which are that these funds are to be strictly allocated for recreational facilities or activities.
Each society is also responsible for reporting back to Flagstaff County each year on how the funding was distributed.
Besides this, Agricultural Societies in each Flagstaff community contribute to the overall wellbeing of the community in other ways, for instance in Lougheed, the Agricultural Society puts on the annual Lougheed Fair, while in Killam, the Ag Society presents the annual Indoor rodeo. Often Ag Societies are responsible for the day-to-day operations of key recreation or community facilities.
Agricultural societies and their volunteer boards play an important role in most rural communities and Flagstaff County is no exception.
Most boards in the region are always welcoming to new members; contact your local board if you’re interested in helping out, whether you live directly in an urban community or in the surrounding area.
Leslie Cholowsky
Editor