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Innisfil, ON –The Town of Innisfil Economic Development Office has been awarded the Planning and Strategic Development - Rural Category Award of Excellence for the Innisfil Heights Investment Readiness Initiative by the Economic Developers Council of Ontario (EDCO).
“We are thrilled to receive this award, which is an acknowledgement of the progress we’re making in attracting new jobs and investment to the Town of Innisfil,” says Mayor Lynn Dollin. “This initiative has created momentum in development interest in Innisfil Heights and this award will no doubt solidify Innisfil as a great place to launch and grow a business.”
The award, announced at the annual EDCO Conference on February 4, acknowledges strategic planning initiatives which have made a significant economic development impact, and is evaluated based on considerations such as program effectiveness, creative leveraging of partnerships, resourcefulness, performance measures and return on investment. Award recipients are often viewed as leaders in their profession and the initiatives acknowledged stand out as best practices within the field.
The Innisfil Heights Investment Readiness Initiative aims to understand and reduce barriers to development in the Town’s strategic employment area, Innisfil Heights. Through collaboration across the Town’s Planning and Growth Team, discussions with partners such as InnPower and InnServices, and through ongoing support by the County of Simcoe Economic Development Office and regional post-secondary partners, staff are making progress on finding solutions to eliminate barriers and accelerate development. An Action Plan has been internally developed and progress has been made on approximately 60 per cent of the recommended action items to date.
“The barriers we’re facing in Innisfil are both complex and also common to many areas in rural Ontario,” says Laura Thompson, Manager of Economic Development. “What makes Innisfil’s approach to investment readiness unique is our collaborative approach to exploring solutions which work in a rural context.”
Since inception, the Town has created new commercial and industrial land inventories, initiated a new Site Selection Response Team of knowledgeable Planning & Growth staff and utility partners to quickly respond to site selection inquiries, and are approaching some barriers on a broader scale to support landowners in finding shared solutions. As a result, Innisfil has been able to attract new investment, like the recently announced investment by Northern Transformer Corporation to establish a $207 million manufacturing facility which in anticipated to create more than 150 local jobs.
“This award is a win for the community,” says Thompson. “It’s an acknowledgement of the collaborative spirit of our business community and it’s sure to attract the attention of innovative entrepreneurs and business leaders who are looking for an open-minded community in which to grow.”
Innisfil’s economic development team is also celebrating the achievements of Lauren McEachern, Economic Development Champion, recipient of the Bright Ideas Award for her team’s submission to the Annual Bright Ideas Competition through which emerging professionals tackle complex economic development challenges. McEachern’s team developed a toolkit to foster interprovincial trade in response to the impacts of tariffs on the Canadian economy.
To learn more about economic development in Innisfil and to stay up to date on news and events, visit InvestInnisfil.ca.
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