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Sparwood Business Retention & Expansion project launched
Sparwood is planning to implement a Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) project designed to stimulate economic development and growth.
The District of Sparwood, Sparwood Chamber of Commerce, and the BC Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills are working in partnership to implement the project.
“Helping our existing businesses is the primary objective of the project. Other communities have had very good results with BRE projects,” said Lois Halko, Mayor of Sparwood. “Before considering this project we talked to community leaders in several other Columbia Basin and Boundary communities that have used this approach to business retention and expansion. The results have been valuable in helping to set strategic goals and objectives.”
Before a community can assist existing businesses it must identify needs, concerns, and growth opportunities. Through the BRE project, trained researchers visit businesses and gather information. The local leaders running the program then work to address identified issues and opportunities.
Selkirk College’s Columbia Basin Rural Development Institute (RDI) is supporting communities in BRE implementation through the provision of training for BRE researchers, implementation support materials (BRE manual, confidentiality forms and processes, etc.), access to the online regional e-pulse data management and referral system, data analysis and report writing support.
“The RDI’s mandate is to support informed decision making through the provision of timely and relevant information and applied research,” said Dr. Terri MacDonald, RDI Regional Innovation Chair in Rural Economic Development. “With the valuable information collected through community-driven BRE projects in hand, decision makers and economic development practitioners in the region will be well positioned to provide targeted support to our local businesses and to take collection action to improve the overall business climate in our region.”
“A key aspect of this project is confidentiality,” according to Jude Smith Sparwood’s BRE Lead “We do not publish information on individual businesses. The project is very careful about this confidentiality issue.”
The information gathered from the visits is compiled and analyzed by the Columbia Basin Rural Development Institute. The local BRE lead and Steering Committee review key findings and recommendations and set into motion a plan for follow up action.
“One of the reasons for the popularity of the BRE project is that it not only supports long range planning for the community but also yields some short-range tangible results,” Smith said.
Local businesses will be receiving letters explaining the project at the start of January and will then be contacted individually to arrange interviews in due course. The project is expected to take approximately eight months to complete.
A gateway to B.C., Sparwood, population 4,200, is a clean, safe and family-friendly community with excellent elementary education, ranked in the top two per cent provincially.
Business opportunities in the district are abundant, supported by positive conditions including an annual income for males that is 42% higher than the provincial average. The district has ambitious development plans driven by a flexible municipal structure, forward thinking planning department, low taxes and tax exemption options covering the downtown.
In September 2013 the district celebrated the announcement of the largest commercial investment project in Sparwood’s history. The site for much of the multi-faceted development plans is pictured above.
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