Newsletter

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Summerside — A World Leader in Innovation
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Summerside offers:
 

So what does this mean for your bottom line?
 

If your operation is in the R&D field, those savings could be as high as 3.6% of sales.
 

Occupancy costs can also be lowered when operating from a PEI location. The KPMG study claims that facility leases are approximately 42% lower than the national average, while property taxes are 15% lower.  In a financial services operation, this can translate into a 2% of sales reduction in facility costs.

Aerospace firms on PEI enjoy a significant advantage through the current rebate of provincial corporate income taxes. The results of this program are evident by the fact that the net profit reported, adjusted for the provincial tax rebate, ran almost 110% higher for PEI firms than that of the national average.

Summerside understands the challenges facing companies looking to grow and expand. The City’s constant scan of regulatory and business costs ensures the best positioning of strengths and addresses any gaps. Marketing these advantages to businesses is a top priority. The municipality is both business and employee-focused, offering an advantageous cost environment, access to markets, and business partners to help ease the challenges of growth. We are positioned to compete for your next business expansion project and to help your business grow.

Smart City Challenge
 

The City of Summerside is gearing up to participate in the upcoming Federal Governments Smart City Challenge with details to be announced in the fall of 2017. With that, Summerside is looking to build a conversation, a team, and a holistic approach to participate in the Smart City Challenge.

So just what is a Smart City and what does it mean in the Summerside context? While we don’t have all the answers, we broadly know it entails far more than the traditional definitions of “Smart”. It goes beyond technology and the Internet and includes economic, social, and environmental elements.

In preparation, our goal is to begin a conversation with as wide a range of people as possible and from there we will start to build our challenge team.

In the past ten years, Summerside has advanced further socially and economically than many had expected, including our west-end developments, upper Granville Street growth, our energy file, and community and recreation facilities. However, there remains much more work to be done.

As we begin the process of positioning Summerside to compete in this Federal Government Initiative, we would appreciate your input on the following issues:
 

Federal Input Required: Immigration Discussion
 

Recently, the City participated in a roundtable of Immigration Levels, Settlement, and Integration in regards to the Federal Government’s approach to shaping Immigration Policy. As part of the roundtable, a series of pointed questions were posed to participants around the levels, streams, and integration of newcomers to Canada.

While Settlement programming is often a shared role between Federal and Provincial agencies, it is Municipalities and, more broadly, the local communities that are key to the success of welcoming newcomers. They play perhaps the largest role in all aspects of the settlement process.

Like many global communities, Summerside has embraced Immigration as a pillar of population and labour growth that will diversify the community and bring long-term economic opportunities.

The Federal Government is seeking input from a wide number of individuals and businesses across Canada and has posted their consultative process and key questions as they look to develop policy. The full background and a series of questions can be found at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/consultations/nationaldiscussion.asp.

If you have a perspective on Immigration and Settlement, please forward your replies/comments/feedback to the questions at consultations@cic.gc.ca or send them directly to mike@summerside.ca and the office will forward them.

Further, in July 2016, The Immigration Minister met with the provincial premiers of the four Atlantic Provinces. Together, they worked to establish a new immigration pilot program for the region to attract more newcomers to the local labour markets and communities.

This three-year pilot program was established to help address resource and labour gaps that sectors are facing and to help businesses attract and retain labour.

The pilot program forms part of an overall Atlantic Growth Strategy and has a focus on the following five priority areas: