Feds add cash to north

Economic development agencies in the northern interior have received a federal boost.

Initiatives Prince George and Northern Development Initiative Trust are both benefiting from the Invest Canada-Community Initiatives program to the tune of $16,800 and $50,000, respectively.

"The substantial investments for both Northern Development Initiative Trust and Initiatives Prince George is most welcome news," said Cariboo-Prince George MP Dick Harris. "Our communities in the Interior will benefit through economic development initiatives while seeking to attract foreign investment at the same time."

The funding program was designed to help communities, organizations and economic development agencies across the country attract, retain and expand foreign direct investment.

IPG has applied for Invest Canada-Community Initiatives funding every year since and has been using the approved funds to support their economic development activities, said Tara Bogh, IPG economic development manager.

This year, the money went to collecting economic data for the development of the agency's new online community profile and other material to respond to investment inquiries.

"One of the things that we know is that one of the key investment-making decisions when a business is looking to locate in a community, is really what are the other things a community has to offer? Because they have to have a certain level of confidence in their ability to recruit and retain workers to the community," Bogh said.

Money from the program was also used to update IPG's business investment guide, which has now been translated into German, Spanish and Chinese.

"The reason that we have chosen those languages is that we have found, through tracking the analytics on our website, that those are the most common origins for international traffic to our website," Bogh explained.

The federal program also supplies 50 per cent of the funding for professional development training for Prince George staff.

"And really, that training better equips the IPG staff with best practice information, access to new ideas and knowledge related to foreign investment and economic development in general," said Bogh.