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Economic Development Support for Investors

PKED’s Business Attraction, Retention & Expansion team offers friendly, personalized service to promote the advantages of doing business in Peterborough & the Kawarthas:

  • Support in training and workforce development
  • Identification of financing and funding opportunities
  • Connections to the local business support community and decision-makers
  • Navigating the planning process, zoning, and regulatory environment
  • Site selection and property identification support
  • Access to data and analysis of local market research
  • Advice on grant and application writing

Connect with us today

Rhonda Keenan

Rhonda Keenan

President and CEO

The Business Attraction, Retention & Expansion Team works one-on-one with individual businesses, co-hosts events and summits to bring the latest news and trends directly to business; and provides ongoing communication to ensure businesses have access to the tools and resources  needed to build and grow  business.

Economic Development Support for Site Selectors

PKED’s  Business Attraction, Retention & Expansion Team is an investor and site selectors local “boots on the ground”. With connections to 9 municipalities, one regional government, multiple systems, planners, and real estate professionals, PKED quickly assembles a local team to assist companies in obtaining the information needed to make an informed location decision. 

Using tools and resources, PKED will create a responsive toolkit providing insight into opportunities, using in-depth local knowledge to help site selectors and investors make smarter, faster, better decisions.

PKED offers a comprehensive digital data centre to support investment and site location research.

Administration of the Kawarthas Manufacturers AssociationPKED provides administrative support to the Kawarthas Manufacturing Association (KMA). The KMA is an industry led organization dedicated to supporting the success and growth of manufacturers in the Peterborough and the Kawartha Lakes region. The KMA, through strategic partnerships, is aiming to grow the regional economy through World Class Manufacturing and the development of a highly skilled workforce.

PKED’s work with Investors and Site Selectors

When a company decides to invest outside of its original location, it can choose among thousands of places around the globe. PKED’s investment attraction activities help to identify why a company should select Peterborough & the Kawarthas as a destination to invest in. Communities that do not integrate with the global economy risk being left behind, however, integration does not happen independently.

To attract foreign companies, economic developers build relationships with targeted firms, industries, and communities. To maximize investment attraction efforts, PKED works with larger organizations such as Ontario East Economic Development, Invest Ontario, and Invest Canada to help showcase the reasons to invest in Peterborough & the Kawarthas.

Investment attraction is an essential activity as it helps to:

  • Diversify economies
  • Expand tax revenues
  • Import innovation, current ideas, and diversity
  • Support local businesses by opening export markets abroad
  • Enhance a community’s reputation among other international firms as an attractive place to invest. International companies want to locate where other international companies are.
  • Make local economies more resilient to regional, national, and global fluctuations