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Resources
New Westminster’s Economic Development Office provides information and services to help businesses invest and grow in our city. We promote economic development by attracting new investment and business, supporting and assisting existing businesses, and enhancing New Westminster’s business climate. Find the latest business indicators, publications and policies for New Westminster in this section.
Our current Economic Development Indicators are available in an infographic here.
Thinking of starting a business here? Here is a guide to help you in the process.
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Business Intelligence
Find local information to help your business make smarter, faster, better decisions.
What makes a vibrant and exciting commercial district? What kind of retail is future proof? What roles do businesses, stakeholders, the City and local shoppers play in attracting and growing successful, community-oriented retail streets?Work continues on a city-wide Retail Strategy, to identify how to best support the sustainability of New Westminster’s retail sector now, as businesses recover from the pandemic, and over the long-term, as the community continues to evolve and grow.
What is Retail?
Retail isn’t only brick and mortar shops that sell goods; a vibrant commercial district is made up of many businesses, including professional services such as accountants; personal services like tailors; non-profit organizations; and others in addition to goods sellers. Overall, the key is finding balance to ensure success for the neighbourhood and broader community.
Current WorkSurvey for Downtown Retailers - January 2023
We are currently collecting input from the Downtown retail business community. The input will be used to inform the recommendations and actions.
Next Steps
Staff presented a summary of the Phase 1 findings to Council in April 2022. The Phase 1 Summary Report outlines the findings from the first phase of research, data collection and analysis, and community engagement. This Phase 1 Summary Report highlights supply and demand, real and perceived barriers and opportunities within the retail environment, based on all information received through the engagement and data collection. This will set the stage for the Strategy Recommendations and Options, which will be developed in Phase 2 (the draft Strategy).
We anticipate the draft Strategy to be ready in Q2 2023.
- What is the Circular Economy?The circular economy is changing the way we see waste. Businesses have traditionally taken in raw materials and produced products and waste. By finding value in business wastes, the material circles back into the economy. Creating a circular economy has economic value and environmental benefits.
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A successful, business-focused circular economy model called the National Industrial Symbiosis Program (NISP) started in the United Kingdom. NISP uses facilitated workshops and free follow-up support to match the inputs and outputs of local businesses. NISP Canada is being piloted here on the Lower Mainland.
Circular Economy Workshops for Local Businesses
Two of the six pilot Business-to-Business Circular Economy workshops have taken place in the City of New Westminster at the Anvil Centre. Twenty-six organizations attended in June 2018 and 23 organizations attended in October 2018.
Each workshop kicked off with an update in the City of New Westminster’s Intelligent City initiative and clean energy efforts, as well as circular economy success stories from Metro Vancouver and around the world.
The NISP practitioners then guided the participants to identify excess resources or materials in their operations that they had or wanted that were also considered ‘waste’. These identified resources could be anything from scrap materials to underutilized equipment to waste heat to industrial organics and more. Then, the other businesses had an opportunity to express their interest in using that resource. Creative matches were encouraged from different industry types, allowing diverse enterprises to have unexpected matches.
Together, these two workshops resulted in 313 distinct resources being identified by participants and 404 potential resource matches between local and regional businesses.
Learn more about each workshop with the NISP Canada one-page summary reports:
Next StepsThe NISP practitioners with support from City are following up with the participating businesses to discover the resource matches that make the most immediate business sense and help them become a reality. Plus, these businesses and resources are being connected to the companies and resources from all the previous NISP Canada workshops. By growing this network, additional matches and new business opportunities are identified and can be pursued.
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