How Hamilton is “Open For Business”
- Neil Everson
- 10 Oct 2015
Hamilton’s EcDev boss on being business-friendly
The City of Hamilton’s department of planning and economic development has established a very clear goal — to make Hamilton the best place in the country to start or grow a business.
This may seem ambitious, but that’s Hamilton. We are already situated among a handful of cities well positioned as “open for business”. The Conference Board of Canada predicts that Hamilton’s economy will grow by 2.7 per cent this year, up from 1.7 per cent in 2014, placing us just behind Vancouver and Toronto.
In Hamilton, ‘open for business’ is not just a saying. As I will describe, we have built a dedicated program that truly embodies this ethos as we face a future of significant opportunity. I’ve said many times before that Hamilton is in an era of city-building that we haven’t seen in a generation or more. No doubt, our business community is a major factor in that. But as we plan ahead for what’s coming, it’s a good time to check on our progress.
How are we doing so far as a city to do business?
Earlier this year, Colliers International named Hamilton an “anchor city” for growth, mean- ing that our city has several key features that make it one of the most attractive environments for setting up or expanding a business.
In addition to offering transportation by land, sea, air and rail, and having proximity to major cities plus an international border, Hamilton also offers relatively low overall costs, a highly skilled labour force, redevelopment opportunities, much lower commute times and a full range of lifestyle amenities.
Clearly, companies around the world are heeding the call to invest here. In the past ten years, at least 100 companies have either newly established themselves or expanded in Hamilton. Our industrial vacancy rate is less than two per cent and office vacancies continue to drop. Imagine the incredible spin-off from that kind of result — job creation and increased tax revenues to name a few.
Open for business of course means providing a welcoming environment to all kinds of businesses — including our small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) — from our down- town to our suburban and rural areas.
In the last two years, the city’s Small Business Enterprise Centre (SBEC) helped 243 new SMEs get started. Over the past five years, the SBEC has helped create 2,613 new jobs in Hamilton, facilitated more than 50,000 small business inquiries, and through an extensive youth program portfolio (Futurpreneur and Starter Company), distributed more than $1 million to the development of 72 new youth- based businesses that created more than 140 new jobs (and growing).
Our economic development team has also been hard at work extending Hamilton’s reach to attract business around the world with their foreign direct investment strategy that kicked into high gear around the Pan Am Games.
The city is also committed to the newcomer entrepreneur, and we have a dedicated section, the Global Hamilton Office, that is focused on keeping foreign talent and skills within the city’s borders.
I applaud the hard work of our planning & economic development team as well as other dedicated city staff who deserve credit for contributing to Hamilton as a hospitable place to live, work and play — from those who manage our roads and infrastructure to the staff who provide health and social services and programs for the many workers that our city’s businesses employ, and their families. Our mayor and council also deserve thanks for backing staff in their efforts to put Hamilton front and centre.
Despite fluctuating economic conditions globally, Hamilton continues to do well, but there’s still more we at the city can do that is within our control — namely, through the Open For Business (OFB) initiative.
OFB at the ity originated as far back as 2006, when meetings with the local develop- ment community revealed frustration over approval process lags. In short, the proverbial red tape from city hall was hindering business.
As a result, in 2011, under council direction, a formal OFB sub-committee was established. The sub-committee’s immediate priority was to conduct in-depth stakeholder consultation, talking to representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, homebuilders, real estate and architects’ associations to identify key issues. Out of this came 69 specific actions with defined time frames. Implementation has been ongoing since 2012, with a “report card” completed in 2013. The report card highlighted successes and ongoing areas for consideration.
Where are we today?
We know we need to drill down deeper into some of our processes. This work will remain critical, especially as Hamilton continues to surpass over $1 billion in building permits annually.
The City of Hamilton now has an Open For Business Task Force with a full-time manager, Bill Janssen, and members from other areas of the organization, including public works. Efforts are focused on removing needless steps in the approval processes, streamlining our current processes, providing clearer requirements and more predictable timelines.
In reality, Open For Business extends to the entire community as a partner with the city — from the banks approving business loans to the local residents who support the businesses themselves. We also acknowledge the support that Economic Development Canada and the Province of Ontario provide to our business community in the form of grants and supplementary support.
Clearly, we are all in this together.
Our city is on an upward momentum and Hamilton cannot continue this trajectory with- out everyone on board, staying informed and involved, and holding the city accountable. It’s a challenge we at the city are prepared to take on, and I am confident that real, tangible change will become even more apparent as we continue our OFB implementation over the coming years.
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