It's federal funding that will provide relocating or expanding companies with a better way to assess Chilliwack's economic profile.
Chilliwack Economic Partners Corporation will be receiving $20,000 "to attract, retain and expand foreign direct investment," said Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon MP Mark Strahl in a release.
The funding is from the Invest Canada – Community Initiatives (ICCI) program.
“Partnering with local communities, the Conservative government is working to attract foreign investment and the opportunities they bring,” said Strahl.
One of the ways the funding will be used locally is to update CEPCO's online community profile for Chilliwack by adding a foreign investment component, said Nettie Tam, manager of business development for CEPCO.
"It a great marketing tool in that it gives us a competitive advantage," she said.
Chilliwack's community profile contains info from the last census, with everything from demographics, to climate, to infrastructure.
It allows relocating companies to look at Chilliwack, and do their due diligence, and "look at the community in a comprehensive way," Tam said.
Attracting foreign investment is important, said Strahl, because one in 10 workers is employed by foreign-owned companies in Canada and foreign-owned companies account for as much as 45 per cent of Canada’s merchandise exports.
ICCI funds up to half community-based projects aimed at developing and executing local investment-attraction strategies.
CEPCO's Chilliwack community profile is at www.chilliwackeconomicpartners.com.
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