Smithers Economic Development Plan Survey Open Until February 2, 2024
Residents and the business community are invited to share their ideas about Smithers’ economy and quality of life via a community survey.
Take the survey here – www.surveymonkey.com/r/3JGZMXM.
Economic Development Plan Background
The Town of Smithers is creating an Economic Development Plan that aims to answer fundamental questions that will shape next-generation job creation and prosperity:
- What if we could achieve the exceptional as a community?
- What kind of community do we want to leave behind for our children and grandchildren?
- How do we create the transformative in our plans that help get us to our aspirational horizon line?
The Town of Smithers, who is leading the initiative, has retained the consulting firm Rynic to develop the Economic Development Plan, with a strong focus on business and resident attraction and retention. Community engagement to date has highlighted a desire to explore economic diversification opportunities, enhance existing business retention and expansion, and enable local entrepreneurship.
Good things have been happening in Smithers. Smithers is the Bulkley Valley Region's economic, recreation and cultural hub. Smithers has a diversified economy. Smithers is a “Town for all Seasons”, with a reputation as an exceptional place to live and work. The Town's pedestrian-friendly streets, mountain-themed building façades, and vibrant culture present a unique rural example of a thriving northern community. This said, the global, national, and BC economy continues to rapidly evolve and innovate, and recent economic activity in Smithers generates a number of considerations – including the future of resource-based industries, workforce and resident attraction and retention, housing affordability, and nurturing of entrepreneurship - that are important means to achieve economic resiliency.
Economic Development Plans speak the language of job creation, workforce attraction, workforce retention, and entrepreneurial enablement – which is the heartbeat of community vibrancy. But they also speak the language of broader community development and the joy we seek in life well-lived - from placemaking to housing choice and affordability. When we connect these dots into a holistic story of an ambitious future, an Economic Development Plan can be the ONE plan that answers a question at the soul of community pride, sense of belonging, and belief in a positive future (for each of residents, investors, and visitors): what is Smithers in future and why does it matter?
Economic development strategies specifically focus on new ways forward for:
- Investment Attraction (further sector development and diversification of dynamic elements of our economy like forestry, mining/exploration, retail, and tourism);
- Business Retention and Expansion (supporting existing business in their growth plans).
- Destination Development (enabling tourism infrastructure and product development).
- Workforce Attraction and Retention Development (skills matching with employment opportunities, community development foundations like housing, etc.).
- Resident Attraction (attracting quality of life seekers and entrepreneurs).
- Marketing (investment attraction/job-creation focused salesmanship).
We can embrace big ideas about the future in an Economic Development Plan. We also need to focus on the identification of pragmatic actions that generate progress toward our vision of the future.
Help us create an ambitious Economic Development Plan by completing the community survey at www.surveymonkey.com/r/3JGZMXM. Community engagement also includes key stakeholder workshops and interviews.
A final Economic Development Plan is anticipated to be complete in Spring, 2024.
Project Contact:
Will George,
Director of Community Services
Phone: 250-847-1600
Email: ecdev@smithers.ca