Prosperity and Growth Strategy for Northern Ontario - 5

A plan for economic development, inclusiveness and success

Priorities for Northern Ontario:

II – Growing Companies

Goal

Enhance the delivery of supports for business start-ups and scale-ups to grow competitive companies and stimulate economic growth

Strategies/Actions:

Technology Adoption:

To promote the adoption of technologies to support competitive businesses and clean growth in urban and rural areas:

  • Enhance technology adoption by SMEs to improve productivity
  • Coordinate and deploy enhancement of digital connectivity investments
  • Support the adoption of clean technology

Sector development:

Invest strategically in potential growth sectors (i.e., agri-food) to help single industry communities diversify their economies

Indigenous Business Growth:

Bring federal and provincial governments, and the private sector together with growth-oriented business and / or business organizations to provide the services they need to develop and grow over the long term; focus on advancing Indigenous Tourism Ontario, renewable energy, a Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Mineral Development, food security, and Indigenous forestry

Women Entrepreneurship:

Encourage greater participation by women in the economy, by helping more majority women-owned companies into world class businesses; continued support to PARO Centre for Women's Enterprises to explore opportunities to expand services to other parts of the region and a more targeted initiative such as women entrepreneurship related to skilled trades

Building a Bilingual Workforce:

Work collaboratively with all partners to identify and leverage employment opportunities by marketing the benefits of hiring French-speaking immigrants, enhancing connections with employers and improving information services to help employers that are interested in recruiting and hiring French-speaking skilled workers navigate the immigration system

Scale-up and Export Development:

To boost efforts to help increase the number of businesses reaching new markets:

  • Enhance and expand existing supports to SMEs seeking to scale up and increase global exports and networking opportunities
  • Leverage existing successful events such as the Northern Ontario pavilion of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) mining showcase, and the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, in order to increase exports
  • Promote collaborations among trade and export organizations

Program Access:

Enhance access to federal business programs including:

  • Staff and service partner training to assist businesses
  • Pathfind and provide access to federal programs and services including the Innovation Canada portal, access to expertise available through the Clean Growth Hub, the Business Development Bank and the National Intellectual Property Strategy
  • Work with regional partners (Community Futures Development Corporations, Economic Development Officers, Chambers of Commerce, libraries, etc.) to provide local points of access for accessing web-based supports