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The Bow Corridor might not quite be Western Canada’s answer to Silicone Valley, at least not yet.

But recent upgrades to Canmore’s telecommunications infrastructure present ripe opportunity for growth in technology-related business.

Telus & Monarch Cablesystems rolled out high-speed cable Internet to the Bow Valley, introducing Canmore with one of the most advanced high speed, broad bandwidth telecommunications frameworks among regional or rural towns in the province.

This year, the Alberta-wide SuperNet program is due to implement fiber optic technology in Canmore, along with other regional communities across the province of Alberta.  Public sector infrastructure should be completed by autumn, 2005.

And, combined with the town’s close proximity to natural wildlife and mountain environments an hour’s drive from one of Alberta’s largest cities, the local technology sector is ideally situated to cater to a niche sector - environmental technology.

A recent study (February 2000) completed by Technology Brokers Inc. states: “Canmore offers a prime location for international environmental technology companies to showcase their technology and facilities to clients in the NAFTA market.”

Many environmental consultants live in the Canmore area, prompting organizations like the non-profit Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley, a storehouse for socio-economic studies and information, to base itself in the town.

The Biosphere Institute last year posted its entire ecological and newspaper databases, comprising as many as 13,000 references in total, online (www.biosphereinstitute.org).

“That was a huge step forward and is being quite heavily used,” says Melanie Watt, the Biosphere Institute’s executive director. “The people who use it really use it. As an example, the people who were working on the G-8 environmental assessment (Kananaskis 2002), they were heavily using that online service and then coming in here and borrowing documents and things like that.”

In partnership with Alberta Innovation & Science, the Canmore Economic Development Authority will be announcing its final winner of the Youth Technopreneur Program - $3500 towards the start of a technology based business. 

"We received an amazing number of innovative concept plans, all over the map in scope and process.  These are amazing young, creative minds," enthused Teresa Mullen, Executive Director of CEDA, of the response to the program, "The first project could be launched as early as May, 2005."

CEDA says Canmore is a model location for doing business with international markets. An hour’s drive from Calgary, Canmore businesses attract talented employees, and residents can easily be in downtown Calgary for meetings - many people make the daily commute.