Chatham-Kent Economic Development has launched a new website tool to help both local and global businesses, developers, and investors gain a better understanding of the community. The tool, which is available at www.investck.ca, provides a community profile which includes details such as demographics, labour force, education, and business industries.
The data powering the website tool is constantly updated and is pulled from a variety of sources including Statistics Canada, Business Register, Ontario Energy Board, Union Gas, CMHC, Canada Revenue Agency, and Environment Canada. In addition, Economic Development plans to include some customized data to ensure even greater accuracy of the community profile.
The need for the website tool came as an outcome of both discussions with business developers and also as a theme from the Community Development Red Tape Reduction project.
“The business community was telling us loud and clear that they needed access to data, so we listened and found a solution that provides key information about Chatham-Kent,” said Stuart McFadden, Director of Economic Development. “In the past, we would compile this sort of information into printed booklets and make them available. The website version gives us the opportunity to have the latest datasets available for businesses 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
McFadden added, “The live website tool not only delivers more accurate information, it is also a more cost-effective way for our department to provide this material.”
Through the Community Profile section of the Economic Development website, users can easily export and download a snapshot of the data in both Microsoft Excel and Adobe PDF format.
“We knew that we had to make the information convenient and easy to access. This eliminates the barrier that businesses encountered as they hunted for information about our community,” said McFadden. “Of course, if anyone in business needs any additional information about Chatham-Kent, they are always welcome to reach out to us directly.”
To contact Chatham-Kent Economic Development or for more information, visit their website at www.investck.ca or call 519-351-7700.
