North Bay 2022 – EDAC Marketing Award Submission BRE Report
City of North Bay EDAC 2022 Marketing Awards Submission
Category: Single Publication – 5 or more pages (excluding research papers)
Title of Submission: City of North Bay Economic Development Business Retention and Expansion Report
Name: City of North Bay Economic Development Department (c/o Fran Hanover)
Phone: 705-474-0400 x2424 Email: fran.hanover@northbay.ca
Project Abstract
Purpose of Project
Business Retention & Expansion (BR&E) is an economic development strategy of proactively connecting with existing businesses to understand and respond to local business needs. Upon survey completion in 2021, the survey data was then extrapolated, and aggregated for further analysis to identify trends, emerging challenges and opportunities. As part of this project, a series of recommendations were developed and shared in the final project report.
The final reporting for the BRE project included:
- Analysis of qualitative and quantitative data
- Summarized survey results
- Recommendations
- Action plans (short, medium and long-term strategies to implement recommendations)
Target Audience
This information is targeted to the local business community and the municipality to help us align priorities with the existing and future needs of businesses in our community.
Effectiveness of the Project
The project outlined 10 objectives to support the retention, growth, diversification and competitiveness of local business. In addition to the Final Report, the analysis identified top 3 overarching themes to aid in developing an environmental scan of existing local tools and supports and, based on best practices, devise solutions for immediate implementation.
The survey covered various categories including, but not limited to, business climate, workforce, future plans, and community growth. The survey also contained sector-specific segments such as retail, manufacturing, tourism, government and non-profit, and transportation.
A total of 250 businesses were surveyed for this report, representing a 7.14% sample size, which exceeds OMAFRA’s recommended threshold to obtain a minimum 95% confidence level with less than a 10% margin of error.
The report achieved three key requirements:
- Recommendations with a breakdown of solutions, such as improved or new communication tools that can better enable the City of North Bay to communicate supporting information and opportunities to the business community as related to the priority Red Flag overarching themes.
- Data-driven graphics, text and infographics in digital format to support the above information.
- A graphics-driven compelling narrative, with the data-based discoveries that also described and supported the recommendations for addressing the Red Flag overarching themes.
The BR&E report was finalized and approved for distribution in January 2022, and continues to assist us in development strategies for our business community based on the collected qualitative and quantitative data to support business sustainability and growth.
Stemming from the City’s Business Retention and Expansion Program (BR&E) and supported by local workforce partners, is the development of the Workforce Attraction and Retention Initiative, which takes a multi-pronged approach to providing individualized guidance and tools to North Bay employers in need of human resource assistance.
The BR+E Team is especially proud of the results and outcomes of this project, as the majority was undertaken during the COVID 19 shutdown, and was then awarded the BREI 2022 Impact Award.
