Business View Civil and Municipal | Volume 2, Issue 12

107 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 2, ISSUE 11 LOYAL I ST TOWNSHI P , ONTAR IO communities –Amherstview, Odessa and Bath – plus Amherst Island, located 3 km off shore. The area is named for the United Empire Loyalists who settled there following the American Revolution. Bath is one of the oldest communities in all of Ontario, originally settled by UELs in 1784. It’s also the site of Upper Canada’s first school, Bath Academy, which was opened in 1811, as well as Hawley House, the oldest house in Ontario, built in 1785. But even with such an impressive past, Loyalist is always looking for ways to move forward and grow. The township is located next to the City of Kingston, a large urban area where a significant proportion of Loyalist residents travel to work. They are hoping that with a few changes, they can open up the opportunities for residents to ‘ditch the commute’ and stay in town. “We would love to see more employment here so that people aren’t having to travel to Kingston,” Silver admits. “We want to provide jobs, so we can protect and honor our own history because we’re a very historic community.” One of the ways Loyalist is doing that is through its business parks. The municipality began developing the Loyalist Business Park a few years ago, with a focus on providing space for light industrial and trades-based businesses. “We, as a township, acquired some land and developed the infrastructure so that the business community can come in and acquire the lots and build the buildings that are required for their businesses,” says Loyalist Mayor Ric Bresee. “We’ve had some great success with that. We are almost sold out and there’s about 20 businesses that have started in that business park.” The township also is developing Taylor Kidd Industrial Park, which has many spaces open and available to large-scale industrial businesses. “It has great access to rail, highway and even potential for port or water access,” says Bresee. “It has natural gas and electricity. It’s ripe for large industrial projects. We’ve actually seen a lot of interest in recent years.” For those looking to work from home, the township has great highspeed and fiber access throughout its major communities. The area’s rural properties and the island are less connected at the moment, but they are actively working with the Province of Ontario to increase the amount of broadband infrastructure that is available. To help bring in more business, Loyalist’s economic development team has partnered with the Eastern Ontario Leadership Council and a number of other bodies that study and promote workforce development in the area. “There’s a lot of work going on around that, identifying some of the areas where we’re short on labor and where there’s high demand and making sure that we address those as we move forward,” says Bresee. The town can also pull its workforce from Queen’s University and St. Lawrence College in nearby Kingston. Bresee