
October 22, 2018 · 0 Comments
By Jasen Obermeyer
Dufferin County’s economic development division will work on its first-ever business retention and expansion study in January, to get a better understanding of how businesses are operating in the county.
Alongside the local municipal economic development departments and committees, the project will begin in January 2019, and will focus on the Professional, Scientific and Technical (PST) businesses that currently exist within Dufferin. Orangeville and Shelburne will conduct business visits within their own limits, and the County will be conducting visits in all the other Dufferin municipalities.
“Orangeville periodically does business retention and expansion studies,” said Karisa Downey, the county’s economic development officer. “From the county level, we saw a great opportunity to jump onboard and complete the data set for the rest of the county.”
Generally the PST category includes legal services, accounting and bookkeeping services, architectural and engineering, specialized design services, computer systems design, scientific and technical consulting, scientific research and development services, advertising and public relations services.
Ms. Downey explained the goal of the project is to assist in the potential expansion and retention of businesses within the PST sector in the County, to look at issues, challenges, and trends. “It’s good for us to get an idea of what we’re doing well, and what maybe we can do on our end to make things a little easier (for businesses).”
Participants will take part in a confidential interview and an analysis of the data collected will be completed and utilized to create, according to Ms. Downey, an action plan that will outline innovative projects to “create a better business climate here in Dufferin.”
She added with more concrete data, they could support and lobby for things such as natural gas and high speed Internet.
Asked when the study will be completed, she said that depends on the number of businesses participating, scheduling interviews with managers/owners, and time for data collection and analysis. “It’s a huge undertaking. There’s definitely a lot of work to be done.”
Those interested in participating in this study are asked to connect Ms. Downey at 519-941-2816 ext. 2508, or by email at kdowney@dufferincounty.ca.