Members of Carman Dufferin Economic Development have created a framework to guide the committee through its first year.

Town Councillor Richard Dyck chairs the new group, and says Ken Reimer with Heartland Community Futures facilitated the initial strategic planning session back in September. He says first of all, the Committee wanted to establish a mission and a vision statement.

"Our vision was already kind of done for us. The Planning Committee...had worked on an eight-point plant and economic development was in there so we kind of paraphrased that one. We do want to become a robust and diverse community."

As for the mission, Dyck says the Committee plans to use various partnerships and opportunities to create an economic climate that attracts and retains business so that they prosper.

Next came setting goals for the coming year to help the Committee accomplish this mission.

"The first goal is to attract, encourage and attract entrepreneurs," explains Dyck. "Our second goal is to retain and expand businesses locally and our third goal is to have some self-promotion through internal and external means."

He notes this will require the help of some partners such as local media, professionals, schools and the Carman and Community Chamber of Commerce.

Dyck goes on to say that each goal has come with clear steps and timelines on how and when to accomplish them.

"We also plan to put this on our agenda every month. We'll focus on one goal one month, the next goal the second month and so on and so on, we'll just rotate through there so it's always top of mind."

He says the Committee had a big advantage in Economic Development Officer Tyler King, who's worked for the Town of Carman and R.M. of Dufferin for quite a few years.

"He's an experienced Economic Development Officer. We're not working from scratch, we have industrial parks and we have a strong business community so it's an excellent starting point."