Colwood council set out a list of this year’s priority actions for its Business Retention, Expansion and Attraction Strategy during a meeting Monday.
Staff had requested guidance from council on how to prioritize their actions on the strategy this year, given limits on allocated budget and staff time.
Council approved the recommendation provided by staff, with only Coun. Cynthia Day opposed.
The recommended priorities were broken down into two categories – business retention and expansion actions and investment attraction actions.
On the retention and expansion front, the first priority action is to develop a list of programs, services and funding that businesses may need to expand in the city, including workforce development programs, research and development funding opportunities, and educational institutions willing to partner with local firms or investors.
The second priority action is to directly get in touch with businesses known to be planning a change within the next six months.
On attracting new investment, priority actions include working with the local real estate community and property owners to build an inventory of available commercial properties and make that data available on a new website, continuing to strengthen the network of local, regional and provincial stakeholder relationships, and to maintain a strong community profile and targeted sector profiles to support marketing activities.