Age 32
One of Alex Hryciw’s big jobs is to lead the Downtown Recovery Coalition, bringing business leaders together to figure out what’s needed to make our core vibrant again. And she’s thankful for what she sees as a left-leaning city council that isn’t necessarily pro-business.
“I don’t know if there’s ever been such a key alignment of everyone. That’s the key difference. And, honestly, I think this council drove us that way. It’s a very left-leaning council and that’s totally fine. But, when the council leans that way, it’s easier for the business community to line up.”
Hryciw grew up thinking that she was going to be a lawyer; but what she calls the “negative environment” in that field had her searching for something else. She moved on to do communications work for the then-named Shaw Conference Centre. She did work for Make Something Edmonton, and she recognized her passion for city-building. She worked for former mayor Don Iveson, including his re-election campaign in 2017. She also worked on Cheryll Watson’s run for mayor in 2021.
Now at the Chamber, she sees a city that doesn’t do a great job selling itself.
“What drives me is all the gaps that I see, and how I can do it better. We don’t do well as a business city. That’s our biggest weakness: We don’t do a good job of aligning where our priorities are… we decide what our priorities are and what we’re bugging the city about, so we don’t go in with 50 different asks. At this point, that’s what gets me up in the morning.”
She helps build a better city, and unites downtown stakeholders
This article appears in the November 2022 issue of Edify
