The Stratford Economic Enterprise Development Corporation (SEEDCo.) hosted their 11th annual general meeting June 12, recapping a strong 2024 year that gave way to more tumultuous times as the calendar flipped to 2025.
Joani Gerber, the chief executive officer of investStratford, covered a range of topics during her remarks that went from how the student summer job program has flourished, to being able to expand the city’s housing stock and how the local companies are finding ways to forge ahead even as economic conditions have become less than ideal thanks to moves made by the United States government.
There were 34 new businesses started up in Stratford, St. Marys and Perth County in 2024, with 179 jobs created as a result. If current trends continue, Gerber expects to see better numbers this year.
“We’re on track to probably beat that,” she said. “Holly (Mortimer) and the small business team are working directly with Art in the Park and some of the organizations that we haven’t worked with in the past. They’re all business owners in their own right, but we haven’t formalized our relationships and interactions with them so we’re doing that. Individuals coming out of the makers space have a lot of business questions, like could I make a business out of this or not, so we’re really trying to figure out some ‘one-to-many’ programming versus one-on-one… instead of helping 20 people over 20 hours, could we do 20 people over two hours, which is going to help create some mass impact.”
Gerber noted that in working with organizations like the Stratford Festival, they have a history of highlighting their workers who have side hustles where they will issue an email celebrating someone’s business on the side. It’s just one example of how Gerber said investStratford is trying to integrate itself with larger employers in town to find places of mutual benefit.
“It’s a cool thing because you don’t have to be a bricks and mortar store to be a business owner – you can sell on Etsy or easily put up a webstore without having a whole lot of technical understanding and be selling your stuff,” she said. “Helping those types of entrepreneurs and home-based kinds of businesses and side hustles isn’t on top, it’s an untapped economy that I think Stratford could really benefit from.”
In looking at the next six months, Gerber said goals that investStratford has in mind include continued work on the Grand Trunk Renewal initiative, housing goals and expansions, and focusing on agriculture and agri-processing business.
“At council this week, they approved the process of the disposition of land for Coriano and East Gore Streets, and Railway Avenue is underway in terms of renovations to turn that into a dwelling unit,” she said. “Kendra (Fry) is also going to help move the community improvement plan for the housing project through council, which was approved in the budget but there’s some public engagement and public information meetings that have to happen. That’s all going to happen through the end of the year.”
Gerber had previously mentioned agri-processing when tariff issues first arose and said they have continued to explore this area as a means to grow a new portion of the local economy. It’s gone from a nebulous idea to more focused since then, something she expects to continue.
“We’re going to Agro-Technica, which is the largest agricultural machinery and equipment show in November, so we’re not just broad-scoping it; we’re saying let’s be specific about looking at agricultural technology companies, and working with Perth County is really unique because they have the raw materials and Stratford can potentially be the processing sector. And this isn’t new to us – we have Masterfeeds Alltech, Trillium Hatchery, Southwest vets and Green Seal Cannabis, so there’s a groundswell already. We just have to get a little bit better at celebrating that and being intentional.”
Artificial Intelligence was also a talking point, something Gerber said could help business owners in respectful and responsible ways. It has the potential to vastly change many sectors, and she said investStratford is looking for ways to show people how it can do more for them.
“How can it make us more efficient, and what types of tools exist that we should bring to our business owners,” she asked. “It’s about making sure that we’re offering the most current and recent products or services to our business owners, being the intermediary for them.”
She indicated they have plans for the fall to host an AI information event where Ontario-based experts will come and talk with business owners on its best uses.
“We’re not all of a sudden going to become experts in this, but it’s more like we’re telling people that this technology is coming in the same way we’ve done sessions with our entrepreneurs on using Canva or Calendly,” she said.
Looking ahead to the final six months of the year, Gerber said she’s been excited by elements of upper governmental budget announcements and what it could mean in a trickle-down way to Stratford.
“I’m excited about the federal government’s commitments to country building and infrastructure opportunities, and I’m excited about the province’s commitments to the same,” she said. “It’s highly unusual that two different parties have a lot of similarities in their priorities, and I think Stratford is well positioned to take advantage of some of that. The stuff that’s underground is far less sexy than the stuff above it, in terms of big buildings and lots of people being employed, but I can’t get the big buildings and lots of people without the infrastructure in the ground. We’re going to be ready to have applications in front of both levels of government when those projects or those programs get announced.”