Lethbridge County partners with the Groundbreakers to explore new tools for regional economic growth

Posted on October 29, 2026 by Sunny South News

By Kristine Jean
Sunny South News

Lethbridge County has partnered with The Groundbreakers to explore how new data and artificial intelligence tools can help municipalities better understand, support and strengthen local entrepreneurs, innovators and businesses.

As part of the partnership, the County has been testing The Groundbreakers Ecosystem Navigator, an economic development intelligence platform created by Canadian innovation strategist Ian Barker.

Media joined Lethbridge County representatives and Ian Barker for a virtual media briefing and live demonstration of the economic navigator platform on Sept. 24, that showcased the platform and shared some early insights for Southern Alberta. 

“We’ve got lots of resources that work actively across Southern Alberta, but where it can be a challenge for a municipality like Lethbridge County is how some of those things come together and how they fit with some of the urban areas that are within the County – some of our Hamlets within the County and how rural residents (and) rural Albertans, can connect with those resources that are often based in an urban centre,” said Trevor Lewington, Lethbridge County’s director of growth and engagement.  

In his introduction, Lewington pointed out part of the work the County was doing was to try to better understand the ecosystem that lives in and around Lethbridge County and “find ways that we could map that, measure that, track that, and really have a deeper understanding of how that fits together,” explained Lewington.        

Barker developed the Ecosystem Navigator to provide communities with a faster way to establish an economic-development baseline and identify issues that deserve closer investigation. The platform can be used for areas including business retention and expansion, investment attraction, entrepreneurship, workforce development and strategic planning.

During the virtual media briefing, Barker explained how the technology was developed, demonstrated how it evaluates a local economic ecosystem, and discussed some of the revelations from a Lethbridge County exercise.  

Barker noted the effects of tariffs, trade and trade alliances, and the ongoing impacts of artificial intelligence and resulting changes, and pointed out how to respond to challenging times and circumstances.     

“The concept here is to ask structured questions around strategy and around economics of people who know a local region,” said Barker, noting County or town officials for example. “Then generate those questions and find a way of generating a report that allows us to conduct some in-depth analysis.”   

The structured input from local experts like economic development professionals, local business, academic institutions and government officials, can compare where their perspectives align or differ, and develops locally tailored analysis to help identify potential gaps, opportunities and areas requiring deeper investigation.

The tool is designed to help economic development organizations ask better questions and focus their efforts more quickly.

“Economic development is changing quickly, and municipalities need to be willing to explore new tools that can help us understand what is happening in our economy and where opportunities may be getting missed,” said Lewington. “The value for us isn’t having technology make decisions. It’s using technology to identify patterns, challenge assumptions and help us have better conversations with businesses, entrepreneurs, educational institutions and regional partners.”

As an initial exercise, economic development and municipal representatives from Lethbridge County and neighbouring communities completed a common diagnostic focused on the regional innovation ecosystem.

“When we asked structured, strategic and economic questions of people who know an area …. what we end up getting is insight from those experts that we couldn’t otherwise get,” said Barker. “What we found from talking to Trevor and to others who’ve used the platform, is that this process, which on the surface looks relatively simple, actually yields a tremendous benefit.”    

The resulting report identified several areas worthy of further investigation. Among them was the question of whether major industrial investment in the region is creating enough secondary opportunities for local suppliers, entrepreneurs and emerging businesses.

Other findings included, connecting local businesses to major purchasers, getting more local value from major investment, strengthening the connection between research and industry and bringing skills development closer to rural employers and workers. 

The technology is expected to help make regional intelligence more accessible.     

Barker describes the technology as a practical tool to give economic development and innovation professionals a quick assessment of their region, compare perspectives and communicate findings to partners and other areas of government.

“Every community has a different combination of people, industries, institutions and knowledge. The goal of Ecosystem Navigator is not to tell communities what their strategy should be. It is to help them see their ecosystem more clearly, identify where knowledge and opportunity may be getting stuck and give local leaders a more focused place to begin the conversation,” said Barker.

Lethbridge County plans to use the work as one additional input into its ongoing economic development efforts, including business retention and expansion, regional partnerships, investment attraction and support for entrepreneurship.

“I think it gives the County a way to measure effectiveness over time,” said Lewington, noting a diagnostic example with a group of stakeholders. “A year from now, I can run that diagnostic again and track changes over time. So I do think that’s quite powerful to have a measurable way of understanding the impacts we can have and how we actually drive economic development forward,” said Lewington.