Officials with Stratford’s economic development corporation shared some of the highlights of their busy 2022 this week at its annual general meeting.
Held at the Festival Theatre, the Stratford Economic Enterprise Development Corp. meeting featured a review of the agency’s activities during the prior year, including a number of industrial land sales and various government-funded programs.
Land sales at the city’s Crane West Business Park exceeded $1.6 million in 2022 while, between new investment and the expansions of existing companies, more than 5,574 square feet of new industrial buildings was competed within the Wright business Park.
Corporation officials also noted the local success of the My Main Street Program, a business accelerator initiate co-funded by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario; the Stratford Sports Tourism Strategy, which is also being funded through the federal government’s Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario; and the Stratford Attainable Housing Project, which is being supported through $80,000 from the Ontario Agriculture Ministry’s Rural Economic Development Program.
investStratford – the “trademark” for the development corporation – also manages the Stratford Perth Center for Business, a provincially funded program that supports small businesses in Stratford, St. Marys and Perth County. At the annual general meeting, investStratford officials reported that 77 small businesses in the region were launched or expanded in 2022, creating 94 new jobs in those communities. The center also provided educational support for local entrepreneurs through eight workshops and events that welcomes more than 250 participants.
The corporation’s annual general meeting report is available for review at www.investstratford.com.
As part of the meeting, officials welcomed Flavio Volpe, the president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, to speak about innovation and the growing electric vehicle economy.