Some frustration with the slow pace of business renewal in High River showed up at Monday's branding meeting.

The Town's Economic Development Officer Jodi Dawson says there's an expectation, one that she shares, that things should happen quickly, but they're not.

"Relatively speaking the recovery from a disaster like we faced is a seven to ten year story, we're in year three-and-a-half," she says. "So we haven't even had a summer yet where we haven't been under construction."

She says for those who went through it, it seems like it all happened a long time ago but in the big scheme of things it hasn't been that long.

Dawson says she's held talks with companies about setting up shop in the town, one with 30 to 40 employees, but there just isn't a space for them yet.

"I'm confident with-in the next three years we'll see movement, and I've already seen three new businesses open in the downtown, one lived here, started his business in the basement,  was ready to open his storefront but had to do it in Black Diamond because it was when we flooded and then he came back," Dawson says. "Another moved here from Cochrane, why, because they loved our downtown."

She says a lot of exploratory conversations have been held with business owners and she says in the next two to three years people will be surprised.