City of Belleville: Committed to being a Leader in deploying its BR+E Program to Support the Growth and Success of its Businesses.
A Business Retention and Expansion (BR+E) program is considered a best practice in Economic Development worldwide. It is a process that municipalities undertake to better understand businesses in their communities. A BR+E supports businesses by helping a municipality to learn about issues as well as opportunities for local business and identifies priority projects that will address these needs. The result is an Action Plan, presented at a public meeting, that forms a key part of the municipality’s ongoing economic development strategy.
The strength of the BR+E project is that it is community based. It is a powerful consultation process with community volunteers guiding the process along side a BR+E coordinator from the City’s Economic Development staff. Community volunteers are trained to visit businesses and conduct confidential interviews with senior management and owners.
Through these face-to-face interviews, the City receives timely and important information to help identify and support the current and future needs of its business community. This information also informs the City’s Economic Development Strategic Plan and investment attraction activities, as well as the City’s budget planning process.
BR+E and Lasting Impacts
The BR+E program plays an important role in creating positive changes in our community. Information received from past BR+E projects is still being used today to inform the decisions of the City’s Economic Development Division and City Council. Some of the changes that have been made as a result of past BR+E projects include:
- Implementation of a successful family physician recruitment program.
- Development of the “Work in Quinte” labour attraction initiative.
- Transportation improvements including intersection changes, new linkages, road improvements and transit routes.
- Infrastructure improvements including new water mains, increased water pressure, sanitary sewer extensions, fibre optic service extensions.
- Downtown Community Improvement Plans (CIP)
- Business Park signage installations.
- Training programs with community partners geared to the needs of local business.
Current BR+E Projects at the City of Belleville:
A BR+E project can target a particular business sector or can be applied broadly to all businesses. In the past, the City of Belleville has carried out BR+Es focused on Tourism, Construction and Health Care among many others.
Currently, the City of Belleville is conducting a Manufacturing BR+E. The name of this BR+E is called “Prosper Belleville” and it is scheduled to be completed by June 2024.
The City’s last manufacturing BR+E was in 2012. The purpose of the “Prosper Belleville” BR+E is to better understand the challenges and opportunities our manufacturers are facing in a post-COVID environment, and to support future business park planning.
It is vitally important that the City understand how it can best serve and support the growth of its manufacturing businesses through direct communication. The information and data received from this BR+E will help us do this.
Participation is completely voluntary and confidential.
If you have questions or want to learn how you can get involved, please contact Victoria Watts, Business Growth and Retention Specialist at 613-967-5260 or email: business@belleville.ca.