Contemporary Corporate Site Selection

Abstract

The NAFTA agreement has changed the nature of economic development in marketing and exposed each country to new competitors whose approaches are as different as the areas they represent. Canada benefits from the removal of trade barriers from the NAFTA agreement that essentially help equalize one group of comparative operating costs related to federally imposed taxes. Toronto, at best, may lose future growth opportunities, or at its worst, lose existing jobs and investments at the community level. There are several key differences between economic development as practiced in the United States versus Canada, many of which tend to favor the United States. In some parts of the United States, they are the key marketing representatives to the outside world, as well as to existing employers. In recent years, they have diversified their approach from an industrially focused program to one that works with all types of businesses and the telephone companies have joined the power companies as strong participants. One of the greatest challenges for economic developers is to match their understanding of what constitutes a community with their customers' perceptions and preferences. Government services everywhere are fragmented and unfriendly. A great deal of emphasis has been placed on centralizing economic development activity in one department including research, community development, infrastructure development, and target industry marketing.