Friday, May 4, 2018

First to the post ... Community Investment Portal launched in Terrace



A project coordinated through three local municipal governments in the Northwest has delivered its first results for the City of Terrace, with that community launching its Community Investment Portal earlier this week, the online access point offers a range of material for would be investors to explore as they look to find that just right location for their business model.

The Terrace information program was created as part of a partnership with the District of Kitimat, Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine and the City of Prince Rupert and is designed to attract investment and workers to the Northwest region.

The City of Terrace has now launched its new Investment Portal to help current and potential businesses as well as site selectors understand the City’s business climate. The municipalities in the northwest are working collaboratively to launch independent community Investment Portals. The portals offer a coordinated, consistent service to industry and potential investors while showcasing the region as a whole.


The scope of the information portal is impressive, with a number of options to explore offering an opportunity to dig deep into information  on a range of themes.

From the Gateway page (see here) readers can view twelve main themes  that include:


Business Climate
Industry Trends
Customer Research
Competition Analysis
Uncovering local opportunities
Identify Land Uses
Examine the Environment
Evaluate the Workforce
Identify Community Facilities
Identify Transportation
Locate Utilities
Search for Available properties

There is also a section to access additional resources in the Terrace region




The Investment Portal plan is also in motion in the Kitimat area, with a notice on that city's website indicating that the online access point is soon to debut in that community.



The Third community of the trio, Prince Rupert, also has a similar portal to offer, though at the moment sharing word of the project seems to be somewhat limited, with little in the way of promotion of what should be a significant tool to attract investment to the community.

The online portal would seem like a good place to help drum up some interest in the Watson Island Intermodal Trade and Logistics park and other civic initiatives, as well as the larger overall industrial footprint available in the region.

However, unlike Terrace and to a lesser degree Kitimat, so far when it comes to drawing attention to the new online entry point to Prince Rupert, the trumpets aren't exactly blaring.

From a search of the growing number of information sharing options offered by the city, any word of the investment portal seems non existent.

In particular there has been no notice posted to the City website, the Economic Development Facebook page or even the Mayor's Civic focused Facebook page to herald the launch of the project.

To find the doorway into investment potential you have to dig a bit into the Economic Development page of the City's Website.




You can begin your search of the Prince Rupert offerings here, and like the Terrace option, the range of information available is impressive, if only someone knew about it ...

While the three communities may be cooperating on the project, with Terrace now up and promoting their online portal, the race for investment dollars and the quest to attract workers would seem to be already underway.

As the new Northwest approach to attracting investor dollars continues forward it would appear that when it comes to getting the word out, Terrace is already past the first turn of the course.

With Prince Rupert at this point, yet to tell anyone that they even have a horse in the race.

Update: Later in the day Friday, the City outlined the launch of its own portal of information, you can review the media release here.

For more items of note related to Prince Rupert City Council see our archive page here.


To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.

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