Archive News from Digital Main Street

Manitouwadge’s main street doesn’t see a lot of tourists. “Tourism is growing,” says Florence  MacLean, economic development officer for the township tucked halfway between Sault Ste. Marie and Thundery Bay in Northern Ontario. “But it isn’t our forté at the moment.” 

Haldimand County is a community of communities, a unique, rural patchwork of main street towns spread out across 1,300-square-kilometres. It’s a vast area, but the threat facing small businesses across these communities remains the same: the digital divide.  

For Minto, a second run of the Digital Main Street program gave Somer Antonopoulos, business development coordinator for LaunchIt Minto, an opportunity to bring some of the area’s overlooked hamlets and junctions into the digital transformation fold. 

For most of the year, Perth is a small town of 6,000 people. But every summer, cottagers and visitors flood the area along the Rideau waterway pushing that catchment area to close to 60,000. “It’s crazy busy,” says Kari Clarke, coordinator for the Perth BIA.

The town’s summer music festival and events like the Guinness World Record-breaking Kilt Run bring an influx of people to the area, drawing fresh shoppers and diners to the main street and boosting business.

With its swath of heritage buildings and picturesque location alongside the Rideau river lock system, it’s no surprise Merrickville-Wolford has become a haven for artists and craftspeople. The small community and neighbouring villages of just over 3,000 people are home to more than 30 artisans, an element of intrigue that draws throngs of tourists every year. It’s also drawn a throng of entrepreneurial retirees looking to get out of the big city and slow down.

When Kincardine kicked off Digital Main Street it had a unique advantage, neighbouring Huron-Kinloss township and Goderich, a lakeside town further south, had already piloted the program in their communities.

The WindsorEssex Small Business Centre knew its plan for Digital Main Street was ambitious. It had just launched a Digital Service Squad through the program which combines grants and one-to-one support from the Province of Ontario to help main street businesses strengthen their online capabilities.

Hamilton is a big city. And across that city which stretches from Ancaster to Waterdown, Dundas to Stoney Creek, are 13 BIAs, each representing a unique neighbourhood with legacy businesses and new entrepreneurs side-by-side. But there’s a common underlying goal, thriving and evolving in this increasingly digital age.

Kawartha Lakes is a city in name only. Geographically, it’s the size of a county and mostly made up of a collection of lakes and rural areas and towns and communities like Lindsay, Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls and Omemee.

Belleville Downtown District BIA had been toying with the idea of launching a digital marketplace as a gateway to shopping at local business online for a little while but the shutdown forced them to fast-track their strategy.