Economic Development Strategy and Action Plan - Perth County

Competitive Advantages• Stratford Shakespeare Festival: As the largest repertory theatre in North America, the StratfordShakespeare Festival is a unique cultural asset for Stratford and Perth County and a driver of tourismand retail investment. It is the anchor of a growing creative and cultural milieu in the region, andshould continue to be leveraged to generate spill-over tourism spending for other parts of the region.There are also potential synergies between the Festival and the University of Waterloo’s StratfordInstitute in growing unique creative business.• University of Waterloo Stratford Institute: The introduction of a permanent campus in Stratfordwith a concentration in digital media will be a boon to Stratford, St. Marys and Perth. The campus willbe a leader in education, research, innovation and commercialization in digital media-related studyand enterprise, with significant impact on the region’s business, theatre and education communities.The presence of the Institute will also create further employment in support sectors.• Diversity of Businesses: While Perth County’s employment is still heavily concentrated inmanufacturing and other secondary industries, it is by no means a ‘one-horse’ county. There isgrowth in creative and cultural industries, driven by the theatre community, local festivals, and theintroduction of the UW Stratford Institute. This will be a key new economy supplement to the existingagricultural and manufacturing base, making the region’s economy more stable and sustainable.• Low commuter out flow of labour: Many of the people who live in the region also work in theregion despite being located close to the cities of London, Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge. Asthe online survey indicated, many local companies (71.0%) do not actively recruit outside the regionto fill local positions. This finding suggest, many local labour needs can be met by the local residents.• Skilled Workforce: There is a high concentration of agricultural, manufacturing and trades skills anda high concentration of people with apprenticeship training or a college diploma. The community hasdemonstrated that they have invested in their skills and training.• Available industrial land and buildings: The region has a wide selection of available industriallands and buildings in the Perth County towns, St. Marys and Stratford. These assets provideopportunities for local companies to expand their business operations and allows for businessesoutside of the area to expand into the region.• Telecommunications Infrastructure: High-quality rural wireless and broadband availability isincreasingly important for business processes, specifically the ‘lone eagles’ (explained later) andsmall rural businesses. A wired and wireless connectivity infrastructure is needed in both rural areasand urban centres, to support growth in the knowledge based economy. A fact that the region is astechnologically advanced as many Canadian cities and serviced with a selection of localtelecommunications service providers besides Bell and Rogers puts the area at a competitiveadvantage. The telecommunications capabilities of the area has been noticed by the site selectioncommunity. RBC is building a data centre in Stratford.Perth, St. Marys and Stratford Economic Development Strategy and Action Plan 34 | P age