The town was recently one of 20 communities in Ontario that participated in an exercise to judge investment readiness.
The exercise was offered under the 2008 Local Economies in Transition Initiative (LETI), and made possible by a grant from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, and administered by the Economic Developers Council of Ontario.
The project entailed Location Advisory Services of New Jersey preparing requests for information for several “mock” corporate investment projects.
On Nov. 3, a representative from Location Advisory Services and the Project Coordinator visited Minto.
The municipality was asked to treat the visit as a legitimate investment opportunity and show off industrial properties, community assets, and describe the labour force, transportation systems, utility and other business inputs that would satisfy a company coming to the community.
At the end of the visit the site selector provided feedback on Minto’s strengths and weaknesses of the response, detailed and how the municipality compared to its competitors.
Minto representatives were thrilled to be rated in the top two to four out of the 20 communities that responded to the request for information.
Council and staff felt that the exercise was a great learning experience and also confirmed that they are ready when investors come calling.