Photo: Goderich Town Hall
Goderich council received an updated economic development plan for how the town can best move forward for attracting community growth.
The report was presented by the Co-Chair of the Goderich Economic Development Committee, and Stellina Williams, the Vice-President of Operations & Head of Policy for the Nuclear Innovation Institute.
The areas that the town needs to focus on is what one might expect: building municipal capacity, building partnerships, identifying education and training opportunities, and helping to build small business capacity.
“Really the focus here was on investment attraction,” Williams said. “What Goderich needs to ensure that it can succeed in growing and supporting its key sectors, and that was really the foundation on which we built this action plan.”
Council also shared some ideas for ways to encourage community growth, including finding ways for graduating students to stay and work, or if they’re going to college or university, to have something for those graduates to come back home to.
Oliver said that when it comes to enticing industrial growth, it’s important to use features that are already in place – including the Port of Goderich.
“Our port is a very obvious thing. And as we’re talking to industry that are looking and (potential) major investments here, it always comes back to issues with transportation.”
There were musings about intermodal transportation options to help those who not only want to live in Goderich and move around, but also those who want to be able to ship products from their industry to other parts of the province, or potentially abroad.
There was also a buzz about recent conversations on social media of GO Train service expanding to Stratford. Many people in the comments shared the idea for service to expand to Goderich someday.