CEDEC VENTURES AND OPPORTUNITIES SUPPORTING ESCQ VITALITY

Source: Port Baie-Comeau

Baie-Comeau’s Collaborative public, private, and civil society Economic Development Venture leveraged the growing number of cruise ship visits and the availability of bilingual talent in the region to, (a) create 14 new bilingual guide jobs in the local economy and (b) collaborate with workforce development service providers to also upskill three existing talents. Nineteen cruise ships are confirmed to dock in Baie-Comeau in 2023 with an estimated 12,000 visitors and the first guided tours began on May 24, 2023.

Creating amazing tourist experiences and telling stories about people, places, and activities in Baie-Comeau provides cruise ship passengers with the encounters, adventures, dreams, and memories they look for. With this in mind, the Collaborative Venture reached out to multiple community partners to help equip the new guides with the skills they need to engage, inform, interest, and entertain their cruise ship visitors.

Venture Partners include:

• The North Shore Community Association (NCSA) – a community organization serving the English-speaking community of Quebec’s North Shore.
• Les Croisières Baie-Comeau – responsible for welcoming cruise ships and their passengers and providing for the ships’ logistical needs.
• Archéo-Mamu Côte-Nord – an organization that works with aboriginals and non-aboriginals alike to protect, understand, and disseminate the North Shore’s First Nations and Euro-Canadians archaeological heritage through an innovative, respectful, and inclusive approach.
• Espace K Théâtre – a local theatre company specializing in communication, creativity, and storytelling.

On May 9 and 10, 2023, Archéo-Mamu Côte-Nord conducted a comprehensive training curriculum for the guides, which included sessions on the history and archeology of the region. Espace K Théâtre complemented this training with a skills development session related to creative storytelling and audience engagement. As a result of this training, Walter Bisson, an 86-year-old retired explosives expert turned tour guide stated “I can now speak about arrow heads found in archaeological digs in a more informed and dynamic way. The training helped us to think about and act differently with our clients”. Mr. Bisson added “It was also the first time we received presentations from representatives of 5 local tourist attractions. We now have more compelling local information to share with our visitors.”

Meaningful tourist experiences will prompt cruise ship passengers to promote Baie-Comeau as a vacation destination to their friends, neighbors, and colleagues. In creating such experiences, Baie-Comeau will strengthen the longevity and sustainability of its local cruise ship tourist market. This opportunity was identified and enabled by the Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation (CEDEC) and its Collaborative Economic Development and Labour Market Development approach.

In June 2023, the Colby-Curtis Museum, Auberge Stanstead, Bazar de Stanstead, Verger Stevens Orchard, and Catherine Van der Linden, Co-Founder and President of Phelps Helps, announced that they are working together to lead an innovative effort to increase tourist traffic and tourist spend in Stanstead. “Discover Stanstead, our public, private, and civil society Venture will take a first step this season to combine and leverage our natural, cultural, and culinary assets into a Dinner and Show series of experiences,” said Samuel Gaudreau-Lalande, Director of the Colby-Curtis Museum. “This concrete step is helping us to package and promote our local attractions to enrich our visitors’ tourist experiences,” said the Director.

To Grill or Not To Grill BBQ, a BBQ Dinner and Shakespeare in the Park event, on July 29, 2023, will be the first of four monthly Dinner and Show events between July and October 2023. Mrs. Van der Linden believes these types of activities will help to attract tourist to Stanstead and increase tourism traffic in the town. “We have a good tourism infrastructure in Stanstead and a wealth of culture and beauty at our doorstep. I’m confident that using our local assets in creative ways will encourage visitors to stay longer and return often to continue sampling what we have to offer.”

The Collaborative Venture’s To Grill or Not to Grill BBQ is aiming to attract 100 more visitors than in 2022. This event will generate positive economic benefits for small business owners, local restauranteurs, and cultural organizations in Stanstead. 

To learn more about the events and where to buy tickets, click here.

Three Jobseekers Matched to Jobs in Montreal

2023-2024 Operational Priorities Confirmed 

To enhance the matching of available Black talent with jobs in Greater Montreal, EmployESBC Partners confirmed in 2023-2024 to:

• Revamp the EmployESBC website to optimize the registration and navigation processes, making it easier for (a) employers to promote positions and review candidate credentials and (b) enable jobseekers to better navigate the website and apply for positions.
• Hire a Communications Coordinator to ramp up employer and talent recruitment and applicant engagement, while working to reduce barriers to successful matches and enhancing EmployESBC’s personalized service approach.
• Create new marketing products to promote the advantages of registering through the website and the value of public, private, and civil society (PPCS) collaboration in finding innovative ways to match Black talent with available jobs in Montreal.

The desired outcomes of this PPCS collaboration among EmployESBC Venture Partners (Black Community Resource Center, English Montreal School Board, Una Buro, and Sobeys) are to provide curated job matching and accompaniment between jobseekers and employers, decrease the time for employers in filling positions, increase jobseeker satisfaction in finding new or better jobs, and improve and strengthen employers’ diversity profiles.

As part of the Lower North Shore (LNS) – Labrador Interprovincial Tourism Venture, the Whiteley Museum has designed innovative tourism products to captivate and attract tourists to extend their stays in the region. Providing a glimpse of the life of residents in Quebec’s LNS, these products will help visitors better understand and experience the lifestyle of the region’s residents.

Onsite interpretive panels accompany these innovate, online digital products to illustrate the history and culture of St. Paul River’s residents.

This initiative of the Whiteley Museum is one of a continuing number of efforts to provide tourists with the cultural experiences they are seeking when visiting the shared tourism region of the Lower North Shore and Labrador while producing tangible economic benefits for the region such as (a) more or better jobs, (b) increased and more targeted investments, (c) increased tourist trade as measured by extended tourist stays and increased tourist spends, and (d) increased tax revenues in the region.

CEDEC POLICY AND REPRESENTATION WORK PROMOTING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT  

AND LABOUR MARKET DEVELOPMENT

John Buck, President and CEO of CEDEC, led a panel discussion at a two-day Federal–Provincial–Territorial (FPT) meeting in Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador. 

In his opening remarks, Mr. Buck identified some of the major challenges to be faced and opportunities to be leveraged to address rural and remote workforce development, notably (a) an aging rural workforce, (b) out-migration, (c) shifting skills requirements, (d) transportation, (e) available and affordable housing, and (f) defining and measuring skills. 

A highlight of the FPT meeting was Minister Hutchings’ launch of the redesigned website canada.ca/rural which will “guide rural Canadians to the programs, services, and resources most relevant to them.”

export strategy to develop global superclusters and partnerships and ensure all sizes of Canadian companies move to net zero. The moderated discussion featured Janice Charette, Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to Cabinet.

The next day, the Growth Summit emphasized that emerging “international power politics and competition” are economic policy issues Canada must address. 

Speakers underlined that the world Canada knew even a few years ago is gone and economic growth will come from the development of technologies, products, and services which recognize the intermeshing of national security, economic growth, and prosperity. Speakers at the Summit indicated that as a friendly middle power, Canada has an opportunity to contribute to the development of commercial technologies related to all three of these related issues. A Summit bottom line, which has been a key concern of the Public Policy Forum, is determining what Canada’s economic and industrial development policy posture will be in the wake of these emerging geopolitical and competitive pressures.

Speaking on economic and labour market development funding at the QCGN Annual General Meeting on June 9, 2023, John Buck, President and CEO of CEDEC, emphasized the critical need for the Government of Canada to better integrate and coordinate its investments to help the community maximize its contribution to the growth and sustainability of Quebec’s economy, while addressing critical economic  disparities and disadvantages being experienced by specific groups in the English-speaking Community of Quebec (ESCQ).

Mr. Buck stated that the “…ESCQ’s strategic ten-year plan is intended to focus, guide and cluster economic and labour market development investments and activities over the next decade to maximize aggregate community impact.” He emphasized the need for collaboration across the community, between the minority and majority language communities in Quebec, and across the public, private, and civil society sectors.

CEDEC’s President encouraged the federal government to get onboard with a “…by and for the ESCQ…” approach to economic and labour market development to optimize gains in strengthening the community’s vitality. He stressed the importance of ensuring that federal funding is allocated in a more coherent and coordinated manner that builds solidarity across the ESCQ, mitigates fragmentation, and supports local responsiveness and sensitivity.

INDUSTRY NEWS AND EVENTS

CEDEC CONGRATULATES OSEentreprendre FOR THEIR DEDICATION TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GENERATING ECONOMIC BENEFITS THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP

CEDEC congratulates OSEntreprendre for the 25th edition of défi OSEntreprendre as well as the thousands of students (elementary school to university) and entrepreneurs across Quebec who participated.