Economic Development Blog

Ontario’s new GIS system now complements legendary incentive programs

By Ray Lancashire, Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade

Hollywood may be the most visible consumer of Ontario, Canada’s legendary economic incentives – but highly competitive packages are available for many other business sectors, particularly those that create jobs. Now it’s even easier to navigate what’s available for your client or corporation – thanks to the province’s new Graphic Information System (GIS) that makes life easy on site selectors, whether you are a corporate real estate end user or a consultant.

At the recent Economic Developers Council of Ontario’s 53^rd Annual Conference, Sandra Pupatello, Ontario Minister of Economic Development and Trade, introduced Select Ontario, the first GIS system offered in a Canadian province.

Select Ontario uses data from more than 500 Ontario communities to assist site selectors and potential investors in locating areas where their investments will flourish. Normally, site selection takes up to eight weeks of scanning hundreds of communities over the internet. However, Select Ontario is an all-encompassing resource that allows investors, corporations and consultants to search through statistics in a much smarter and timelier manner.

Select Ontario offers region-specific wage data, lists of businesses with 10 or more employees, graduation and enrollment levels, satellite imagery and a list of Economic Development Officers.

According to Minister Pupatello, a bit of Select Ontario investigation will show that this province is already “the place to be with respect to its highly educated population, highly skilled workforce, and highly accessible business environment.” Investing wisely is a matter of narrowing down an Ontario community that meets your needs.

“Just-in-Time Learning” Needed for the Re-invention of Education in the U.S.

I just had the opportunity to attend a most interesting fundraising breakfast sponsored by Choose DuPage EDC and the DuPage Workforce Board. In addition to the usual great networking, the guest speaker definitely knew how to keep us all awake at such an early hour.

Mr. Tony Wagner is the Co-Director of the Change Leadership Group at Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is the author of a number of books about what we must do to change our education system for the better: better workers for our businesses, better citizens and better team players.

Tony sums up his extensive research into what he calls “Just-in-Time” Learning; or, “How to ask the right questions to solve the problem.” This method uses Core Competencies in “connecting, critical thinking and collaborating.” Traditional American education, (including No Child Left Behind) is “timeless learning,” relying upon multiple choice testing. Our traditional system teaches the test. That is, “What gets tested is what gets taught.” The result: people that know how to get good grades, but are not very useful in the work place or life.

But, when young people are left to their own devices, they are literally connected: connected online; connected in creating, multitasking and developing relationships. This is the kind of learning succeeding in the rest of the world, but hasn’t truly arrived, yet, in the U.S.

Think about how we work in business today. We collaborate. We respond to each other’s ideas through blogs, email and other media. We learn how to put ideas and solutions together to solve our business problems. We learn how to ask the ‘question.’

For more information, visit Tony’s Change Leadership Group website at http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~clg/; or google Education 2.0 and Education 3.0.

Chris Manheim, CEcD
Chicago Chapter of CoreNet Global
Economic Development Chairman