Economic development refers to the active transformation of the living environment and concerns the organization’s entire ecosystem. Every stakeholder must participate in the living environment, whether from an economic, social, community or other perspective. Accordingly, the entire community must adopt a common development vision and employ a participative, inclusive and collaborative approach. This vision is achieved through collaborative efforts, cooperation or coopetition with neighbouring municipalities or key partners.

There are numerous issues in economic development.

Economic development focuses on creating new businesses, sustaining existing ones, optimizing business growth, developing innovative sectors and attracting investments. Economic growth stagnation is a significant challenge. A lack of cohesion in local initiatives can lead to substantial business losses and community devitalization. This, in turn, poses challenges related to business succession and sustainability, closely linked to the labour shortage prevalent in Quebec and Canada.

Current challenges include an observable decentralization of structures and a democratization of economic development, indicating that economic development functions have been integrated at several levels. The workload is distributed throughout the community, resulting in an increased number of stakeholders, leading to a fragmentation. Consequently, the role of economic developer is changing, along with changes in the competitive landscape.

We are currently witnessing several major transformations affecting the economic development landscape, including the rise of digital technologies and artificial intelligence, which have significant impacts on the role of developers.

For instance, the role of a network agent is gaining importance, primarily by connecting various ecosystem players to create links and synergies and by developing value-added partnerships. Developers position themselves at the centre of a project while remaining neutral and not being a direct participant; rather, they structure and advance projects.

The experience in economic development experience acquired by Espace Stratégies since 2007 can be applied to your organization in a variety of ways.

Economic development affects the entire ecosystem. That’s why we have developed relationships of trust with many institutional stakeholders. We can therefore count on the participation of all actors and partners, including economic development services, cities, regional county municipalities (RCMs), districts, municipalities, planning services, community-related organizations, local development centres (CLDs), commercial development corporations (CDCs) and more.

Espace Stratégies can train and equip economic actors to optimize their contributions. We can also help organizations to establish partnership strategies and set up concertation activities to mobilize the community around a common vision.

Additionally, we can support your organization in a strategic review to determine foundational directions and priorities to be implemented in the short, medium and long term. In this way, we can identify relevant and effective action strategies for any organization or institution.