Bruce County Warden Paul Eagleson announced that Bruce County is ready to help small, to medium businesses. “Project Innovate,” a new initiative to advance economic development and innovation in Bruce County, has been adopted by the Planning and Development Committee.
“Through working with many of our great partners, we have built a solid foundation to creating a strong innovation and entrepreneurial spirit here in Bruce County,” states Eagleson. “Project Innovate, is a regional innovation strategy, that will serve to advance our region with regards to our advantages in the energy sector with the long term goal of diversifying our economy and creating opportunities for business development.”
The Strategy worked through a process to assess the existing energy and environmental technologies sector in Bruce County and recommended priority next steps in order to advance this growth area.
It includes a view to examining opportunities to leverage existing assets to create an entrepreneurship ecosystem for the successful
cultivation and growth of Small Medium Enterprises (SME’s) around the clustered strengths found in the County.
Bruce County’s Economic Development team completed a Strategic Plan in 2016, which offered insight into a gap within SME’s in the County. Workshops and interviews, carried out by Deloitte and supported by staff have helped form the basis of the Strategy. This includes a focus on both an internal and external perspective
garnered through support from local CAO’s, as well as, a diverse group of industry partners from across the region.
The next step is to implement this Strategy by setting up a “Project Innovate Taskforce”. Once established, this Task force will define the actionable road map to achieve the strategic priorities that have been identified, setting priorities and timing and driving the innovation agenda towards our long-term goals.
Kara Van Myall, Director of Planning and Development says that, “The overarching goal is to build a diverse collaboration network that advances Bruce County as a global leader and national centre in energy production, research and next generation technologies”.
“We are excited about the opportunities in front
of us,” she continued, “and know it will greatly impact the future of Bruce County and all the businesses that call it home.”
