When it comes to fostering the growth of businesses in the region, Innovation Initiatives Ontario North (IION) helps businesses score consistent single hits instead of a single big home run, according to Executive Director Rob Deline. But these small victories quickly add up, and with an injection of government funding, it's only going to continue.
He gave this analogy during the FedNor announcement Thursday morning when Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Anthony Rota said the Government of Canada would be investing $460,000 into IION to help them continue growing businesses in Northeastern Ontario with their Step Forward Entrepreneurs Program (SFEP).
“When we’re building an economy, we’re building the small and medium enterprises,” Rota said. “If you keep going after that one large business all the time, you miss out on all the opportunities to nurture those smaller businesses into large ones.”
This investment into SFEP will allow it to proceed into phase three, which will build on the success of the first two phases. This FedNor investment will help small businesses innovate, grow, and create jobs, positioning Northeastern Ontario for sustainable economic growth and prosperity. This strategic initiative will provide qualifying businesses with up to $10,000 to enhance and expand their operations, commercialize new products, conduct market research and capitalize on export opportunities.
“If we can nurture those businesses here, I think long term we will do well in Northern Ontario,” Rota said. “We have a lot of people with a lot of potential here, and if we can get them to grow here and expand here, Northern Ontario will do very well.”
During their media conference at Canadore College’s Commerce Court, where IION is situated, they also took the opportunity to recognize Lofthouse Forging and Machining, giving them an innovation award for their accomplishments over the course of 2016.
“They are really the epitome of a company that has embraced technology,” Deline said of the company. “They are what I’d call a fearless investor. They’re putting substantial amounts of money into the region, they are extremely well managed, and they embraced technology. They have the right stuff.”
And although up to $10,000 might not be a lot of money, Deline described, IION can offer modest help and resources to small and medium enterprises, often speeding up economic development quite substantially.
Since its inception in September 2012, SFEP has provided direct support to over 100 businesses in the Nipissing-Timiskaming and Parry Sound-Muskoka regions, helping to create or maintain more than 90 jobs. The initiative has also helped create six new businesses and assisted an additional 25 firms in their efforts to expand or modernize their operations.
