This copy was provided by the Ontario East Economic Development Commission


At the Ontario East Economic Development Commission (Ontario East), our mission is to create an environment that encourages a growing and prosperous economy for our member municipalities throughout the eastern part of Canada’s most populous, diverse, and economically dynamic province.

{{RELATEDLINKS}} The role of Ontario East is to act as a conduit and a resource for investors, businesses, and stakeholders: offering opportunities for collaboration, expertise, facilitation, information and connection.

While Ontario East has a number of initiatives that help municipalities, entrepreneurs, and economic development organizations, we know that our most valuable and tangible role is in building relationships through facilitation and connecting individuals. Our job is to get the answers and information an organization or individual needs and to deliver it in a timely manner in the format that best serves their needs — and to ensure that the right people come together to begin a meaningful and collaborative dialogue. Our teams have built meaningful, significant, and mutually beneficial relationships with key people in business, industry, government, the education sector, and with many entrepreneurs and corporations. We bring together officials from different sectors, different levels of government, and groups of entrepreneurs — and any combination of these important stakeholders. The overriding goal is to get people talking and sharing about building partnerships and innovative projects that benefit not only their own local communities and businesses but also all of eastern Ontario.

Relationships are key to knowing what site selectors and investors are seeking and to learning their needs. In eastern Ontario, our size is our advantage. It allows us to reach people at a more personal level than larger jurisdictions which in turn, leads to stronger relationships. Connecting people to the right people means results. Our partnerships with provincial and federal government colleagues, funding agencies, and local workforce development agencies brings successes.

What are our businesses saying about the team in eastern Ontario? “Cornwall provides a great place to live and work. It is a family-focused community and its beautiful natural surroundings support a healthy lifestyle,” says Sheila Smith, Regional Human Resources Manager with Walmart Logistics.

“I went on the website and saw so many examples of businesses that were flourishing because of their help,” said Rob Purvis, the owner and craftsman of Stone City Woodworks. When he sat down with the Lennox and Addington County team, he said “it was like sitting down with a friend.”

CEO Rui Resendes of FireRein said, “I’ve done big town, small town; and one of my objectives when I joined the team at FireRein was to try to convince the team that we needed to move to a bigger center, because that was the prejudice that I went in with. I told them, ‘You can’t possibly succeed in Napanee. It’s too small’. I guess the lesson I learned pretty quickly is that there is that community leveraging that is here that I didn’t see, and, in my experience, you don’t find in a lot of the bigger cities. The bigger the city the more dog-eat-dog it is.” “The reception received in Gananoque has been first rate with the Economic Development office assisting to help establish partnerships,” noted John Free, big river technologies inc.

We know that providing information is not enough. To maintain relationships, it means exceeding expectations. People genuinely want to connect on a personal level and our teams genuinely take the time to get to know what people are seeking, be it information, locations, or additional connections.

Ontario East is a region of opportunity, a region of connectivity, and a region that is a perfect place to do business, grow your business, and enjoy the rewards of your business. The strength of the region is that our municipalities want to know you, help you, and build relationships that connect investors and businesses.