Economic Development Week is May 8-12, 2023 and TeamSTC is joining with the International Economic Development Council and municipalities across North America to shine a light on the contributions and impacts our profession has on our communities.
What is economic development?
Economic development is the intentional practice of improving a community’s economic well-being and quality of life. It includes a broad-range of activities to attract, create, and retain jobs, and to foster a resilient, pro-growth tax base and an inclusive economy. The practice of economic development comprises of a collaborative effort involving industry, government and a number of community stakeholders.
Who are economic developers?
Economic developers are professionals with varying backgrounds and specialties who provide leadership in policymaking and in administering policies, programs and projects in support of economic development. The effectiveness of economic developers lies in their ability to collaborate with industry, government and community stakeholders. Often thought of as conveners, economic developers play a central role in leveraging the resources of a community – such as businesses utilities, educational institutions, neighborhood groups, and more – to support economic development.
What do economic developers do?
Everyday, we engage and collaborate with our partners, including government, businesses, industry and many other stakeholders, to move St. Catharines toward our shared goals. TeamSTC plays a critical role in building up St. Catharines to support a more equitable distribution of wealth and opportunities so everyone has access to more opportunities and resources to help meet their needs and improve their standard of living.
Our work centers around making our community a better place for everyone by helping to improve St. Catharines’ economic well-being and quality of life. Our strategic objectives include:
- Encouraging investments in our community for new developments and redevelopments
- Attracting, creating and retaining jobs
- Helping to foster a resilient and inclusive economy
Economic development in St. Catharines
A walk around Downtown St. Catharines will give you a glimpse of our work in action. From cranes in the air building from the ground up to construction crews redeveloping existing properties into new homes, St. Catharines housing stock continues to grow (not just downtown but in neighborhoods across the city) to keep pace with demand to live here. The population in St. Catharines is expected to grow to 150,000 by 2031 and to more than 165,000 by 2041.
St. Catharines remains an attractive place to invest and developers continue to choose OurHomeSTC for their major projects. As one of 25 Urban Growth Centres identified by the Province of Ontario, Downtown St. Catharines enjoys planning policies designed to increase population density. St. Catharines reputation for being investment ready.
Residential construction not only creates new homes and neighbourhoods, creates jobs for a diverse range of skilled workers and trades and provides opportunities for local businesses to collaborate on building materials, construction equipment and other services. A growing population stimulates more economic activity across other sectors, too, such as retail, hospitality, and services. This king of economic activity can attract more new residents from other areas to St. Catharines, potentially leading to more population growth.
But attracting residential developments and redevelopments isn't all we do. TeamSTC is involved in a number of tasks, programs and initiatives that support business retention and expansion, business investment attraction, tourism marketing and promotion, small business and entrepreneur support and more. We have much to celebrate. Stay with us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn this week as we highlight and feature more examples of of how our work is helping to make our community stronger.