Construction Support
The Economic Development department’s Vaughan Business and Entrepreneurship Centre (VBEC) and Tourism Vaughan launched an online resource focused on supporting small businesses affected by ongoing infrastructure development projects. Local businesses temporarily impacted during construction projects can go to vaughanbusiness.ca/ConstructionSupport to find resources to help mitigate challenges that may occur during construction.
The site includes:
- Open for Business toolkits – downloadable window signs and graphics for web and social media to encourage residents and visitors to continue to support your business during construction.
- Available E-commerce solutions.
- Available business directories.
- Available funding, such as federal or provincial grants or the Business Benefits Finder.
- Business advisory services – VBEC offers advice to entrepreneurs and businesses of all stages and sizes.
This project was a collaboration between the Economic Development department, the Infrastructure Development team and the Creative, Marketing and Engagement (CME) team at the City of Vaughan.
Since launch, the program has been positively received. Delivered at no cost, the Economic Development team provided timely and useful information to the Construction Support page as part of the program. In addition, VBEC has incorporated walkthroughs of any future construction zone to go from door-to-door to businesses that would be impacted, providing physical collateral on the Construction Support page and information from Infrastructure Development on upcoming Public Information Gatherings to learn more. The CME team has updated its communication plans with regards to current and future construction projects, incorporating mobile and CurbEx signs, direct mailers, dedicated e-newsletters, local signage through the City’s digital sign network, road signs, and more.
One specific project where the Construction Support program was utilized, named Woodbridge Avenue Improvements and Streetscaping, assisted 12 businesses directly impacted by the construction through VBEC’s business advisory offering. Six of these businesses are now fully funded participants of the Vaughan Starter Company Plus Program and received a $5,000 provincial grant.
An upcoming project happening in Kleinburg has utilized the Construction Support program as well, leading to one of the highest attended Public Information Gatherings.
This project is innovative simply in its collaboration. What is typically a very siloed area of management is now a cohesive, integrated machine that allows for new ideas and support to best assist our community. The Construction Support page holds a wealth of information to assist businesses and brings our Economic Development team more actively into the community. Infrastructure Development has far more line of sight on potential issues destinations and small businesses face and incorporate that information into contracts to better help contractors do their job in the most efficient way possible. The CME team helps to communicate everything that both Economic Development and Infrastructure Development are doing, sharing the vaughanbusiness.ca/ConstructionSupport resource and proactively giving information to the community before disruption occurs. As construction takes place, all three departments actively address challenges as they come up and can work together to provide immediate responses to any feedback or complaints received.
Construction projects, in many ways, are out of the hands of municipalities – whether it’s due to the ownership of the road/area or the necessity of keeping important and vital infrastructure elements functioning. To be innovative and effective, the three departments had to challenge the status quo of what was standard or acceptable and approach it from a business and community perspective.
