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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2012
this city.
CIO
:
What is notable about those
stories? What do they say about Kitch-
ener?
CZ
:
This community has continu-
ally reinvented itself and the city as an
organization has made sure that the at-
mosphere has been here for businesses
and families to be successful.
One of the most appropriate anec-
dotes I found is that
in 1912, the city gave
a grant of $25,000
(
a tremendous
amount of money
at the time) to the
Dominion Rubber
Company to help
construct its factory
on Strange St. That
was unheard of—for
a city to give so much money to help
create a business, and this is what ex-
emplifies innovation. The company
was able to create jobs and Kitchener
became an environment where busi-
ness can succeed—this is a very similar
mandate to what we do now.
And of course, by bringing that
city investment into business, it im-
pacts the social side of devel-
opment as well.
CIO
:
Can you tell us how
has the city been innovative?
CZ
:
The original inhabit-
ants of Kitchener had to be very en-
trepreneurial and innovative in order
to survive. Over the last century, and
especially through the industrial revo-
lution, people started to pick up on
this community—discovering that it is
always reinventing itself and this has
made our community very inviting.
For instance, during the hard
times, Kitchener is always the last to
come into economic difficulty, and the
first to come out of it.
We have learned as a
city to take risks that
some municipalities
may not take, creating
this entrepreneurial
culture.
Something signifi-
cant to mention is just
that: our entrepreneu-
rism stretches through business and
culture. In fact, when we created our
Economic Development Investment
Fund in 2004, we did so because we
saw that a major shift was happening
in the manufacturing sector, and al-
though we weren’t sure to what extent,
we had to ask ourselves: how can we
cushion the shock?
That’s when we concentrated on
redeveloping the inner city.
The School of Pharmacy
(
$30M) was one part of the
$110 million dollars raised
through the Fund —this
was a huge risk for the city
“
We will keep up with the
change of demographics
and the diversity, and we
will want to get ahead of
change.”
