Planning to engage with businesses in your community or start a Business Retention and Expansion (BR+E) project this year? You should attend the upcoming BR+E training sessions to learn the best practices for engaging the businesses in your community.  Through the BR+E program, participants will learn how to make their community a great place to ..read more

Is agriculture a key sector in your community? If so then plan to attend OMAFRA’s two-part online Agriculture Economic Development Training! This FREE interactive 2-part webinar training will: REGISTER NOW! When: Who should attend: This 2-part interactive webinar training is for economic developers, land-use planners, municipal councilor’s and community leaders who want to explore agriculture ..read more

Examining your community in comparison to others is a great way to increase your understanding of your local economy. Comparing or benchmarking is important because it provides greater context to the information, turning simple data into knowledge.  For example, if the population of your community grew by five percent, is that consistent, faster, or slower ..read more

Helpful tips for completing the application process The Rural Economic Development (RED) program intake is now open and will accept applications until February 21, 2024 at 5:00 pm ET (Eastern Time). You can find all the program information including how to apply on the RED webpage.  Information Sessions  Information sessions were held on January 25 ..read more

Helpful tips for completing the application process The Rural Economic Development (RED) program intake will open for applications in January 2024. You can find all program information including how to apply on the program’s homepage when the program opens.  Information Sessions  OMAFRA staff will be conducting two public webinars to provide an overview of the ..read more

A Free Webinar Training Series For Not-for-Profit Organizations This free train-the-trainer webinar series is designed for organizations to gain valuable skills and tools to facilitate their own strategic planning. Based on the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ Strategic Planning Resource manual, this step-by-step interactive webinar series will help organizations improve their effectiveness, strengthen ..read more

Date: January 10, 2024Time:10am to 12pmRegister Here Are you looking to support and grow the economy in your community? Community Economic Development (CED) is the process of fostering an environment that results in the creation of wealth and well-being for the benefit of the community. This Teeny Tiny Summit will explore our CED 101 program ..read more

Join a free webinar on Wednesday, December 13th from 10 am until 11:30 am on the topic of OMAFRA’s downtown revitalization program. Downtown Revitalization is a process of improving the economic, physical, and social well-being of a community’s traditional town centre by: Presenters will discuss balancing downtown revitalization by considering market driven strategies within economic ..read more

It is important to be up to date on the current labour trends and opportunities in your community. OMAFRA’s Lightcast Analyst tool provides various data sets to explore whose hiring, what positions are in demand, desirable skills by employers, and even a career pathways tool that is designed to close skills gaps and encourage next ..read more

OMAFRA has created a new “Rural Ontario socioeconomic data and information resources” that highlights key facts about rural Ontario. The dataset is sourced from Censuses of Population and other datasets published by Statistics Canada since 1971. It provides data in formats that researchers and analysts can review and manipulate for their own analytical needs. The ..read more