Business Retention & Expansion Program

BACKGROUND / EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Business Retention and Expansion Program (BR+E) was initiated by the Town’s Business Development Committee (BDC) in 2005 through the development of successful partnerships with the East Gwillimbury Chamber of Commerce, the South Lake Community Futures Development Corporation and the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs (OSTAR R.E.D. Program).

The program is based on an established questionnaire model which is designed to reveal any issues, impediments and constraints for existing businesses in the Municipality. The intent and purpose of the report is to take the pulse of the business community with the objective of developing actions steps to improve the overall environment for business activities in the town. The BDC established a Task Force to undertake the program together with a wide range of community leaders and volunteers, selected for their prominence in the community. The BR+E program for EG involved the canvassing of 72 individual business operations from across the Town. These businesses were selected by the BR+E taskforce to ensure that each area of the business community, (Manufacturing, retail, Administration etc.), were proportionally represented.

The completion of this process resulted in the Task Force preparing and summarizing the results of the questionnaires in the form of the Final Report of the TASK force which was presented to the Public on October 16. The Task Force report identified 7 key issue areas which where derived from the survey results.

In terms of next steps, the Business Development Committee has received the Final Report of the task force and is in the process of developing a sub-committee to deal with the report’s findings and develop a series of recommendations which will be presented to the Town Council in the coming months. In addition, the Task Force report will be forwarded to other potential partners including the Chamber of Commerce, the Region of York, the South Simcoe Training and Adjustment Board etc. The BDC will then establish communication with potential community partners to resolve any issues as outlined in the Action Plan.

For further information on the BR+E Program contact:

Dan Stone, MCIP, RPP
Manager of Policy Planning
Town of East Gwillimbury
Tel: 905-478-4282, Ext. 249
Fax: 905-478-8545
dstone@eastgwillimbury.ca