They are being described as “bold” and “transformative” initiatives aimed at helping to drive growth and prosperity across the Saint John region.
Envision Saint John: The Regional Growth Agency has released two new plans focusing on economic development and tourism in the region.
Andrew Beckett, the CEO of Envision Saint John, said the plans each include several key priority areas they want to focus on over the next five years.
“Within each of those priorities there’s a series of actions that have been outlined and that’ll help us in terms of keeping track of progress,” Beckett told our newsroom.
The Regional Economic Development Strategy includes a comprehensive approach to economic development, prioritizing workforce development, infrastructure enhancements, business expansion and retention efforts, investment attraction as well as quality of life improvements.
The goal of the Tourism Master Plan is to enable the region to deliver a positive visitor experience while enhancing the quality of life for local residents.
The plan emphasizes the importance of addressing infrastructure needs, diversifying attractions, enhancing visitor experience and extending the season.
“The success of the plan is going to depend on a lot of community players coming forward and working on a number of different aspects,” said Beckett.
“Envision has a role to play in terms of helping steer some of the initiatives, but this is going to involve a broad cross-section of the community to move forward with the plans that have been laid out.”
Work on the two plans began earlier this year with what Beckett described as “extensive engagement.” Each plan had a steering committee in place made up of around 12 to 14 people each.
In addition, he said, they conducted interviews with a number of key leaders throughout the region and did surveys of businesses and residents.
“We had about close to a thousand responses to surveys from residents. We also did a survey of visitors, had about 500 respondents to visitor surveys to give us some information,” said Beckett.
The CEO recently presented the plans to municipal councils in the region and said he received a lot of positive feedback.
“I think the priorities seem to resonate with people. I think they make sense. I think the councillors can see the strengths that are there from the community standpoint. And I think the initiatives that are outlined in the plan make some sense from that standpoint,” he said.
