Pillars of Progress
Seven action plans have been developed to interact with each other to encourage businesses to leverage the many opportunities in East Hants and create a favourable business climate.
Business Outreach
Designed to provide:
- An increase in the interaction between the business community and the Municipality to foster a market-driven business climate that encourages investment and growth
- Activities including informal meetings and alliances with local business organizations to:
- Build relationships
- Enhance communication
- Improve cooperation and alignment
- Targeted presentations showcasing the transportation network, strategic location and competitive business costs for business opportunity
Business Park Promotion
The Municipality is home to three business parks:
- Elmsdale Business Park, located in Elmsdale, along the Halifax-Moncton Growth Corridor (Municipal owned)
- Uniacke Business Park, located on Highway 1, near Exit 3, Highway 101 (Municipal owned)
- Milford Industrial Park, located in Milford, on Route 14, Highway 102
This plan is designed to attract new businesses to the parks and encourage existing business to expand. These parks generate development and spin-off business impacts.
Rural Development
As the historic backbone of East Hants, rural communities have contributed tremendously to the economy, culture and character of the region. Part of the economic strategy is to:
- Preserve social and economic integrity of communities
- Ensure the benefits of development along the Growth Corridor extends to all residents
- Enhance the existing retail, service and tourism strengths
- Secure new commercial development
- Stimulate economic activity for rural communities
The Municipality will undertake initiatives to give the community a new focus and revived future.
Trade and Investment
The Municipality will target high economic values and added sectors compatible with our location advantages and natural resource strengths.
East Hants will emphasize and organize investment trade missions for the following compatible sectors:
- Transportation and distribution
- Mineral development
- Wood product processing and manufacturing
- Technology and life sciences
- Manufacturing
Special Projects
Part of the economic strategy is to recognize and capitalize upon unique opportunities that will leverage local strengths and yield high returns and benefits for the region.
The Municipality is prepared to take a proactive approach to investigating all special investment opportunities that would provide a strong base of taxable commercial properties.
Business Development, Retention and Expansion
The economic backbone of East Hants has been the thriving private sector, from large resource-based manufacturers to small and medium sized operations.
Because of the forces of globalization, new competition is growing more intense.
To support the continued success of local businesses, the Municipality will ensure it understands the needs of business and creates a fertile environment for growth. The Municipality will also facilitate connections to other levels of government and agencies, and support programs to address key issues for businesses.
Communications
Visibility and awareness are key challenges for business and investment attraction.
The communication plan includes getting the word out that East Hants is an attractive choice for commercial investment for the following reasons:
- Growing workforce
- Business-friendly local government
- Excellent transportation links
The plan will incorporate image branding to enhance recognition and encourage local enterprises to take advantage of the services and programs provided.
Advertising, promotion and publicity initiatives to promote the business parks, municipal initiatives related to business, or the achievements of local companies will be important components. Access to the new, comprehensive electronic interface will enhance investor access to local business information and municipal business services.