The economic development office of a mid-sized Alberta municipality confirmed this week that it has been forced to redesign its entire investor-attraction package after prospective businesses kept asking the same opening question: which country, exactly, they would be investing in.

"We used to lead with 'low taxes and a great quality of life,'" said the town's lone economic development officer, gesturing at a glossy brochure now stickered over with a hand-printed addendum. "Now we lead with 'we are reasonably confident this will still be Canada by the time your warehouse is built.' It's a softer open."

According to the official, recent meetings with out-of-province investors have ballooned in length, with the first quarter-hour consumed entirely by questions the town is not equipped to answer, including which currency local property taxes will be denominated in, whether goods leaving the municipal industrial park will clear a border, and "what passport you'll need to visit the splash park."

The municipality, which has no role whatsoever in the province's flirtation with separation, says it has nonetheless absorbed the full economic consequence of it. "The premier gets to muse about sovereignty on a podcast," the officer noted. "I'm the one who has to phone a logistics company in Ontario and explain that, no, we have not yet decided if we'll be a foreign nation, but the zoning is great."

Council has reportedly discussed a formal resolution requesting that the province either commit to a referendum or stop mentioning one entirely, on the grounds that perpetual ambiguity is the single worst condition for attracting a thirty-year capital investment. The resolution was tabled after a councillor pointed out the province would almost certainly ignore it.

Asked whether the uncertainty had cost the town any specific deals, the officer declined to provide figures, citing confidentiality, before adding that the binder labelled "Confirmed Prospects" was now thin enough to mail in a standard envelope. "It's fine," she said. "We're a resilient community. We just wish someone above us was, too."