Business Retention and Expansion (BRE)

The Prairie Innovation Enterprise Region has committed to a Business Retention and Expansion Program (BRE); an economic development strategy that recognizes the importance of existing businesses and focuses on engaging the business community in gathering information that illustrates trends in the region.  The information gathered in this initiative is compiled in the PIER Knowledge Base:  a database run on the Synchronist platform.  Information from the Knowledge Base is currently being used internally to develop regional economic development strategy.  Externally, information from the Knowledge Base, in the form of aggregate reports, will be distributed to stakeholders and service providers in the region, with the goal of communicating barriers to, and opportunities for, economic development specific to the stakeholder or service provider.  Phase 1 of the BRE interviews has been completed with approximately 90% of primary industries interviewed.  A sample of the information that came from this study is available in the PIER Knowledge Base Report.

Ongoing BRE interviews will provide further data that will be used to describe secondary sectors in the region, and the dynamics, barriers, and opportunities at play with this group of businesses.  Once sufficiently populated, data from across regions will be used to identify infrastructure and service deficiencies at a local level, which will help prioritize the allocation of resources for addressing these issues.