Economic Development Plans

Business Attraction Guide
 Economic Development Strategy & Marketing Plan

The Township’s Economic Development Strategy & Marketing Plan was developed by Strexer Harrop & Associates using Rural Economic Development (RED) Program funding. The development of these documents was a Key Action Item derived from the Business Retention + Expansion (BR+E) Report, completed in late 2017.

There were three phases in the development of the Economic Development Strategy & Marketing Plan.

  • The first phase looked at the current reality of the Township’s communications and included an audit of how the Township and its partners communicate to community members and how visitors to the area receive information (ie. signs, kiosks, posters, etc.).
  • The second phase focused on stakeholder engagement.
  • The third phase involved the consultants working with Township staff on strategy development using the results of the stakeholder engagement and data analysis of other comparable communities.

The resulting Economic Development Strategy focuses on five key sectors; Development & Trades, Professional Services, Retail, Senior Services and Tourism.

The resulting Marketing Plan supports the recommendations made in the Economic Development Strategy and includes a number of key Action Items, timelines and budget estimates for the completion of these items.

Economic Development Projects

 Business Retention + Expansion (BR+E) Project

The BR+E Program project, funded by the Rural Economic Development Fund, is led by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and is a community-based effort to assist and encourage local businesses to stay and grow in the community. 

Although our BR+E project focused on the retail and service sectors, the Township of Selwyn hopes to conduct BR+E projects for all of its sectors in the future.

The BR+E survey identified the strengths and challenges faced by 71 local retail and service sector businesses and the results were used to help develop the Business Retention + Expansion Report.
 Cultural Mapping Project

The Cultural Mapping exercise, funded by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport through the Creative Communities Prosperity Fund, identified and catalogued the various cultural resources in our community such as: natural heritage, cultural industries, community cultural organizations, agriculture, culinary resources, and religious organizations.

Community Cultural Mapping provides many benefits, such as: 

  • enables development of partnerships which enhance cultural vitality;
  • supports local cultural sectors by giving residents and visitors access to information about arts and heritage activities;
  • strengthens the case for investment in local cultural resources;
  • provides a basis for policy development, planning, decision making, and integration into municipal plans; and
  • helps the community visualize cultural assets through the use of maps

As a result of the Cultural Mapping exercise, the following maps were created to identify various cultural resources within Selwyn:

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