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One year after a $100-million fund created by Calgary city hall to help grow the local economy was launched, almost a quarter of its cash has gone to eight organizations.

But while grant recipients have promised to create more than 1,500 jobs and training spaces in desirable sectors like digital technology and health sciences, the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund has yet to reel in a truly big fish, Mayor Naheed Nenshi acknowledged recently.

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“I might have thought that by now we would have made one or two blockbuster investments … these (we have made) have been relatively smaller ones,” Nenshi said in an interview. “I’m not disappointed, just a little bit surprised.”

Nenshi, who sits on the independent board that weighs every grant application, said he is pleased with the choices made so far and believes every one will result in something “transformative” for the city. But he said none of them on their own will make a significant dent into Calgary’s unemployment rate or its sky-high downtown office vacancy rate.