The city of North Bay is bringing back a program that was implemented in the mid-00s in hopes it will help grow the city.
At a media event, Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli along with city officials announced $42,000 in provincial funding to help reincarnate a new Business Retention and Expansion program.
City Councillor Dave Mendicino, who did a lot of work to get the program started again, says it’s important because 85 per cent job growth will come from existing businesses.
“This BR&E is designed to target those existing businesses to see how we can help them not just in retaining existing jobs because that’s important but helping them to expand,” said Mendicino.
Mendicino says the program impacted 96 jobs back in 2005. He says city council feels this program will be a key part of their overall strategy to grow the city.
He believes it is all about communication and practical solutions.
“The reason we know this program will work is we are going in with a track record. In 2005, we implemented this same program, we had extensive interviews with over 250 local businesses and at the time 96 opportunities were identified and out of all those 10 came to fruition and I can tell you within the first year four of those 10 were converted into a $9 million investment, the retention of 73 jobs and more importantly the expansion of 105 new jobs,” he said.
Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli noted in the previous program, the city was able to help get more hydro out the Fabrene which led to an expansion. Another success story relating to the previous program was a call centre was able to expand after the program helped change a city bus schedule which allowed to get to the facility easier.
“Our government is committed to supporting communities like North Bay in identifying opportunities for economic growth,” said Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli.
“This investment will help create jobs and sends a signal to the world that Northern Ontario is open for business.”
Led by the City’s Economic Development Department, the program is designed to aid in the expansion of existing companies and to help gauge the health of the business community.
“It’s important that we listen to and support our business community. This program will help to retain jobs and promote new hiring and expansion,” said Mayor Al McDonald.
“It’s through partnerships and investments like this that we will be positioned to grow our community.”
