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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - MAY 2014
CIO had the opportunity to con-
nect with the Minister of the agency,
Gary Goodyear, to discuss the impor-
tance of FedDev initiatives to the prov-
ince, and ultimately, to the future of
Ontarians.
How is FedDev Ontario setting a
precedent for business development
in Ontario?
FedDev Ontario has the luxury of
being brand new in that we were es-
tablished in 2009. There was never be-
fore a federal economic development
agency in southern Ontario.
This means that I don’t have a
long history of existing programs that
are difficult to change and I don’t have
a staff of employees that are trained a
certain way or are used to doing cer-
tain things, and their audience does
not have previously set expectations.
So with that luxury of being “new” we
have been able to very quickly move
money into the economy. Our immedi-
ate goal was to partner with great On-
tario organizations that have connec-
tions with parts of the economy and
that has been very successful.
We were very quick and very
nimble and continue to be so today. If I
heard of something on the road, a chal-
lenge or opportunity, and it seemed to
be good I would call my office from
the road and we would develop a pro-
gram. We would in some cases be able
to launch the program right away. We
designed the pockets for each program
based on ongoing input and were able
to create and launch programs very
quickly: this is very unusual for gov-
ernment programs.
I would also make sure other
Ministers knew what we were work-
ing on, and we were constantly tweak-
ing our programs to make them more
productive. Our programming is better
and longer lasting—The evolution of
our programs has been fast.
To date, FedDev Ontario has
contributed over $1.1 billion resulting
in partnerships with more than 5,300
organizations and over $1.5 billion in
additional leveraged investments from
almost exclusively non-government
sources to support businesses, manu-
facturers, organizations and communi-
ties in southern Ontario.
As we move into our next five-
year mandate, starting in 2014-15, we
have shaped our priorities to respond
to these opportunities and address per-
sistent challenges in the economy of
southern Ontario.
What is the organization doing
