Bruce County’s economic development team is continuing its work toward strengthening the local business community.
During Thursday’s council meeting, staff delivered a report looking back on the work done in 2025.
The economic development team was able to help local businesses get support through the Business to Bruce Small Business Enterprise Centre program.
Through their work, 137 jobs were created, thanks to 176 businesses being started, expanded, or sustained.
Director of Government Relations, Jeff Loney, said that Economic Development also launched the new Side Gig program, which is a partnership with Fanshawe College. The program supported 45 side businesses through targeted training and incentive supports.
“A lot of what we were hearing was [that] it’s harder to get capital or access capital, and it’s much harder to maybe give up a full-time or part-time job or give up family life in order to jump into a full-force into a full-time business,” Loney explained.
The county also continued to work on foreign investment interest through InvestInBruce.ca.
Invest In Bruce uses targeted marketing campaigns, lead generation initiatives, and participation in international trade events, including the Food Ingredients Europe Show in Paris.
“I won’t sugarcoat it, 2025 was a rough year for investment, especially foreign direct investment, which are the big splashes that you see coming into a community,” said Loney.
He added that despite challenges in drumming up foreign interest, and only earning 50% of what was earned the year before in such interest, the county was still able to see a healthy amount of income from those investments.
The team’s Summer Company Program had a good 2025. The program, which runs in partnership with the Province of Ontario, was able to award seven young entrepreneurs with $3,000 grants.