Smiths Falls shows community support, not size, matters in global economy
A small town in Eastern Ontario is showing the world that size doesn't matter when it comes to playing on the global stage.
Smiths Falls, a town with a population of just 1,800 people, has just opened a standalone economic development office to enable its economic development team to further its ongoing efforts towards pursuing international investment.
The town council restructured the community's economic development office upon realizing that its economic development manager needs freedom to continue his ongoing successes at drawing international investment attention to Smiths Falls.
"Small communities have every opportunity to pursue global investment just as readily as the large communities, and we have proven it with our sister city Xiangyang in China," says Bob Cheetham, Smiths Falls' new Director of Economic Development.
Last year, Cheetham and Smiths Falls Mayor Dennis Staples led a mini trade mission to Xiangyan that is expected to result in more than $30 million in economic spinoffs through attendance by Chinese students at a town college and six signed memorandums of understanding.
In March, Cheetham travelled to Cannes, France for MIPIM, the world's largest real estate investment exhibition and conference.
At MIPIM, Cheetham represented Smiths Falls with a team from Ontario and Ontario East and several other municipalities to promote development of his town's development opportunities. This included the former Hershey chocolate factory and a former water treatment plant-a heritage building alongside the Rideau Canal, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
It was the kind of trade mission many small-town economic development offices normally only dream about, but Cheetham says it wasn't overly expensive because the Ontario Government picked up much of the tab.
"The bigger communities do this kind of thing all the time, while the smaller communities think they can't afford it, but they can," he says, noting that the cost of the trip for Smiths Falls was under $10,000-a small price to pay for many leads.
The conference generated 127 direct leads for Smiths Falls and Cheetham had 21 one-on-one meetings with investors interested in Smiths Falls opportunities.
Smiths Falls is about to release a call for expressions of interest to develop the former water treatment plant and Cheetham expects a few of the developers to step forward will be investors he met in Cannes, including-ironically-a Canadian developer he met there.
To enable Cheetham to work on global deals, the town is also hiring a new full time Manager of Community Development and it's creating a contract position for a cultural planner. That will bring the town's economic development staff to six from four.
Province gives $1.18 million to Ontario East city for business park expansion
A grant from the Ontario Government will see the City of Cornwall receive almost $1.2 million to expand the Eastern Ontario community's business park.
The Eastern Ontario Development Fund money will help pay for the extension of a road in the state-of-the-art park.
The total cost of the park is estimated at more than $6 million. This new construction will open another 300 acres of the park to development. Two big corporations-retailer Target and Boundary Properties-have already bought land there for their distribution centres.
It's expected that the road will be completed next year.
A release from the province said the park will create more than 1,000 new jobs in addition to hundreds of construction jobs.
"Helping eastern Ontario municipalities grow their economies is a central feature of our plan," Jim Brownell, MPP Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry, said in news release. "Improving the Cornwall Business Park's infrastructure not only creates hundreds of jobs for the residents, but sends a clear message Cornwall is open for business."
Rifle manufacturer wins national productivity award
An Eastern Ontario rifle manufacturer has won a federal and provincial government award that helps it improve productivity and competitiveness.
Savage Guns, of Lakefield, received the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Award specific to their funding from the SMART Program, an initiative run by the province and the federal government's Southern Ontario Development Program.
The SMART Program helps small- and medium-sized Ontario manufacturers improve productivity so they can compete more effectively globally.
According to a report in The Peterborough Examiner, Savage Arms received the money for completing the SMART Program, which saw it spend $180,000, including the $50,000 from the SMART program.
The money was used to buy a new machine that doubled the amount of rifle barrels made in a day, the newspaper reported.
The company currently employs about 100 people, producing 3,500 rifles per week, McCullough said.
Kemptville telecom co. gets $156,000 EODF grant to grow production
A Kemptville telecom products manufacturer has received a big boost from the Ontario Government that will allow it to expand production and consolidate operations into a single state-of-the-art facility.
Kavveri Technologies expects to create 11 new jobs and protect 36 existing jobs as a result of the $156,000 grant from the Eastern Ontario Development Fund.
The EODF money will go towards the more than $1 million expansion.
A release from the province says the expansion will help Kaverri "build production capacity, increase research and development, and produce the next generation of wireless products for a growing international market."
Paul Stevens, vice-president of business development at Kavveri, said in the release that the government support is helping his company to bring high-quality jobs to Kemptville.
Cornwall captures national attention as CTV broadcasts from community
The City of Cornwall was in the spotlight last month when a national television channel broadcast from the community for a day.
CTV Morning Live and CTV News at Six broadcast from the shores of the St. Lawrence River at Cornwall for five hours on Sept. 14 to share stories of local residents.
Cornwall Mayor Bob Kilger said the broadcasts were a great opportunity to highlight all the positive things happening in the Eastern Ontario city.
The day started with a four-hour broadcast from the St. Lawrence Power Development Visitor Centre and featured lived on-air interviews with community leaders and business owners.
