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PRESENTATION CONCERNING AN INVEST BARRIE UPDATE
Stephannie Schlichter, Director of Economic and Creative Development and Jennifer Roberts, Manager of Strategic Initiatives, Policy and Analysis provided a presentation concerning an Invest Barrie Update.
Ms. Schlichter and Ms. Roberts discussed slides concerning the following topics:
* The department organizational structure;
* The objectives, goals and mandate of the department;
* A summary of the department's strategic initiatives and partnerships;
* The Economic Growth and Housing Affordability Macro-Economic Conditions between 2012 to 2022;
* Barrie's housing market between August 2021 to August 2022;
* The approach to business attraction, retention and supporting the existing business base;
* Business attraction activities, resources and partnerships;
* The department activities related to the tourism portfolio;
* Business prospects, successes, lessons learned, potential outcomes for 2022 and site selection tool;
* Business retention and the COVID Recovery Action Plan;
* Business retention of key sectors through innovation programming;
* An outline of the top business assistance requests from 2018 to 2022
* The departments initiatives and responses to businesses and talent recruitment issues;
* The feedback from local businesses;
* The key factors and strategy to building investor confidence;
* The highlights of the upcoming 4th quarter programs to support local businesses;
* The number of housing units approved, potential number to be built, and the rationale for the number of units not suited for construction;
* The number of dwelling unit starts between 2020 and 2022; and
* The rationale for Barrie's construction and housing market conditions.
Ms. Schlichter announced that the City of Barrie has been awarded the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) Excellence Award in the Neighbourhood Development category in recognition of the temporary public art project...
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