Latest news with #CommunityEconomicDevelopmentCommission
Hamilton Spectator
28-06-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Collin presents City growth pitch to business crowd
Thunder Bay City Manager John Collin presented details of the City's Smart Growth Action Plan to members of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce on Thursday during a luncheon at the DaVinci Centre. Collin pointed out that the key to growth is starting with growing the population, which will entice businesses to be here. 'If you take a look at the last two (five-year) census periods, Thunder Bay's population grew by 1.3 per cent, ' Collin said. 'That doesn't sound half bad until you take a look at the national average, which was 5.2 per cent — four times more or the Ontario average, which was 5.8 per cent, which is four and a half times more.' He says a business looking for a place to start up or expand will tend to lean toward a city that's thriving with growth. 'We have not grown as much as we should in terms of population. We are not receding, and we are not declining, but we haven't grown enough. It's led to a real challenge with our revenue base,' he said. The majority of the tax revenue to run the City comes through property taxes. 'In the last 10 years, our property tax revenue has increased by 7.8 per cent — that's cumulative. . . . That sounds OK, until you consider inflation,' he noted. 'Inflation in the same timeframe grew by approximately 32 per cent — four times faster than we did. So it's not a question of doing more. It's a question of how we manage to keep our head above water when we are falling behind inflation so dramatically?' He said that typically, the City will 'shave the ice cube,' by trimming services and programs, and raise property tax rates and user rates. Collins said this is why the City needed a smart growth action plan instead of another generic strategy that could be used for any city. 'I'm talking about concrete actions germane to the city. And who writes that plan? Not administration.' He explained how they formed a task force of 25 people from businesses, academia, the business improvement areas, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Community Economic Development Commission, which have been working for six months to come up with a growth plan. The first draft was presented to council last week. 'The city needs to have land available and ready for businesses to establish themselves on,' he said. 'We don't have that shovel-ready land. We have a commercial park, but we don't have an industrial park. Lack of shovel-ready land is a true limiter to attracting business.' Of our current property tax base, 84 per cent is residential. Only 16 per cent is industrial and commercial. 'That's the reality, that we don't have the industry and the commercial undertakings that we used to have in this city,' he said. 'Look at the vacant grain elevators, and that's a visible icon of that reality. It's truly ironic because we're still regarded as a blue-collar town. But we don't have a whole lot of blue collar left.' He added that the city has to make sure our housing remains affordable and we need to 'build, build, build.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
CBC
06-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
New fund supports smaller Thunder Bay businesses during US-Canada trade war
Social Sharing The Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce and Community Economic Development Commission (CEDC) are teaming up to support small-and medium-sized businesses as they navigate the Canada-United States trade war. The two organizations launched the Small Business Tariff Response Fund on Monday. The fund will provide 15 eligible businesses with $7,500 in funding, for projects that have a minimum cost of $10,000. Applications will be accepted until May 30. "Tell us the story about how this is going to impact your business," chamber President Charla Robinson said. "What is the breadth of the impact, how are you going to transition it, and what kind of resources are you needing, so that we can evaluate who needs the money the most." "It is a very limited amount of funding, but we feel that the 15 projects should be sufficient to address the need in the market." Robinson said the fund is open to businesses with 50 or fewer employees. "We know that both the federal and provincial governments are still working on some bigger programs," she said. "But we didn't want to wait too long." "We want to make sure that businesses know that there's something that is much more quick and responsive to their needs, so that they're not left holding the bag, so to speak," Robinson said. "So that's why we wanted to roll this out as quickly as we can." Jamie Taylor, CEO of the CEDC, said it's hard to predict the impact of the trade war and tariffs, because things are changing so quickly. "We've heard from several small businesses through our entrepreneur centres specifically about how it's affecting them," she said, adding that with the pandemic, there's been a lot of turmoil for smaller businesses in recent years.
