North Grenville now has a roadmap for economic growth.
The municipality has released their recently finished
Business Retention and Expansion (BR&E) report.
The project has been ongoing for the past year and was
designed to give North Grenville residents and businesses a better idea of how
to encourage growth and maintain stability of local business. The project was a
partnership between the North Grenville Chamber of Commerce and the
municipality. “This is a fantastic first step,” said the BR&E coordinator
Terri Devine. The report serves as a detailed blueprint showing the
municipality and businesses what they have to do to move forward.
The project called for volunteers to visit with 80
different businesses in North Grenville and get answers to the question of how
to ensure economic growth and strength.
The program is community based and volunteer driven.
“It really solidified our partnerships with the business
community,” said Devine. Wendy Chapman is the CEO of the North Grenville
Chamber of Commerce. “Responses from the survey noted that business looked to the
Municipality and the Chamber to collaborate more. The Chamber supports the
municipality’s review of responses based on their role and the Chamber’s role
in the Community.” she said. We will be collaborating where possible and
recognizing whose role best services responses in general, without duplication
of services,” said Chapman.
The last Business and Retention and Expansion program
came through North Grenville back in 1999 over ten years ago. The result has
been the successful start at revitalizating Old Town Kemptville, the
development of a signage strategy and an increase in availability of serviced
commercial land.
The finished BR&E survey details how, in general,
North Grenville has a healthy and growing business sector. The survey stated
that 85 per cent of businesses surveyed take part in local events and festivals
and contribute financially to these various events. The business community
believes that the key services provided in North Grenville are in great shape.
That included schools, the hospital, fire services and the O.P.P..
The survey found that 65 per cent of business sales were
coming from the local North Grenville market. The survey found that there were
over 40 businesses in the area who wanted to expand or relocate in North
Grenville over the next 3 years. The potential is very real for the arrival in
North Grenville of 124 jobs.
Answers to questions highlighted information about what
business was wanting to do in the future. Forty-three per cent of businesses
survey said that they had every intention of staying the same and remaining in
North Grenville.
Seventeen percent said they were thinking about
relocating. Forty-three percent had plans to expand and three percent were
planning to close.
Of the 17 per cent who said they needed to relocate,
three quarters were relocating within North Grenville.
The reason for relocating was the need for better
facilities to work from. Four other business who had plans to relocate outside
North Grenville said that they had no choice and two businesses that were
planning to close were doing so because their owners had planned to retire.
There were four main areas highlighted in the survey.
They are, improving community marketing and tourism. Upgrading the roadways and
finding ways to relieve traffic congestion.
Provide competitive advantages to businesses and
decrease energy costs as the municipality works towards going green.
The top four identified actions in the Kemptville
downtown core were:
Continuing the beautification process, provide more
joint marketing and advertising programs for members, Create better signage an
increase the amount of parking in the downtown area and actively recruit more businesses.
A key discovery of the survey was that while many people
were aware of how the municipality was trying to stay on top of its economic
development, they were not always aware of what progress had been made and what
the community goals were.