A regional non-profit is proposing a formal partnership with the Town of Pincher Creek that would give local businesses access to interest-free improvement loans, free consulting and business training.

The proposal by Community Futures Alberta Southwest includes loans of up to $25,000 for business improvements, with the town covering interest costs within a council-approved annual limit. It was presented by Mark Brown, executive director, at town council’s Sept. 14 regular meeting.

“Catch the wind” is a reference to the Cowley Ridge wind farm built west of Pincher Creek in 1993. Brown used it as a metaphor for the untapped energy of local entrepreneurship, saying ambition and local capital, like wind, generate nothing until something is built to capture them.

“There’s a second invisible force in the town: the energy of people with ideas and businesses to build,” he said.

Brown identified four challenges that can hold back small businesses: capital leaving the region when loans come from national banks, a financing gap for viable but unproven businesses that banks decline to fund, an aging group of business owners without succession plans, and entrepreneurs building businesses without outside guidance.

He cited a failure rate of about 75 per cent within five years for small businesses in Alberta.

To address those pressures, Brown proposed a partnership built around four components. The first is a referral pipeline, in which town staff would direct entrepreneurs who inquire about business licences or starting a business toward Community Futures for free consulting, coaching and training.

“Most businesses would get these services free. We provide up to six hours of free coaching or consulting,” Brown said in a later interview. “We also offer free online education, and then if a business decides they want to take that part of it farther, they can.”

The second component is a redesigned business improvement loan program offering interest-free loans of $5,000 to $25,000 over terms of three to five years.

Community Futures would administer the financing and report back to the town. Its own board, not council, would approve each loan, a process Brown said typically takes one to four weeks.

Brown said the redesign grew from a 2025 Community Futures survey of more than 900 business owners across southern Alberta.

“The research we did said that that program is still needed, but $10,000 doesn’t buy you much nowadays,” he said.

“So, they’re looking for an increase to that from $5,000 to $25,000 in amounts, up to five years, and again, interest-free, or the town would pay the interest on that loan over the course of that loan,” He said.

The third component is joint promotion, with Community Futures and the town advertising Pincher Creek’s business-friendly programs together rather than separately.

The fourth is a standing seat for Community Futures in the town’s economic development discussions.

Brown also described a separate service, the exit navigator program, aimed at helping business owners prepare for retirement or ownership transitions. He said it is underused but important for keeping storefronts from sitting vacant when longtime owners retire.

He asked council to direct administration to work with Community Futures on a memorandum of understanding. This would set out how the partnership would work, what it would cost the town and who would be responsible, while providing real numbers for council to base a decision on.

Community Futures has similar formal arrangements with the towns of Cardston and Claresholm, and Brown said he is also in talks with the MD of Pincher Creek about the program.

Community Futures Alberta Southwest is a non-profit funded by Prairies Economic Development Canada, the federal economic development agency for the Prairies. Brown described it as a one-year contribution agreement with Ottawa.

It serves Pincher Creek, Fort Macleod, Cardston, Claresholm, Waterton and other communities in the region from its office in Fort Macleod. Its focus is on economic diversification and support for the agricultural and tourism sectors.

According to figures Brown presented, the organization has funded 391 businesses and invested $21.3 million since 1999, with about $2.23 million currently circulating through repaid and re-lent loans.

In Pincher Creek, Community Futures has approved 96 loans totalling $5.31 million since 1999, with about $760,000 still in circulation.