ADEDA News

Local Focus
Our first stop this week is right here in the hallowed, if albeit abbreviated, halls of ADEDA HQ.

There’s a new seasonal member of our team and I’d like to take the chance to welcome him. He’s a talented, inquisitive and energetic summer student, and he’s going to be working especially with businesses to raise the profile of the “buy local” movement, as it applies to the broader goods and services sector of our region. Welcome to Annapolis Digby Brandon Greer!

Brandon’s role in the “buy local” development area appears to be increasingly timely and significant. Just ask Tim Halliday, who operates Driftwood Greenhouse in Gulliver’s Cove. His Digby Neck greenhouse is expanding its facilities and capacity for producing English cucumbers to meet the growing “buy local” demand. “This is the first major expansion for our business since 2004 and the new facility will allow us to double our production,” he says.

And if you’re thinking that developing a personal “buy local” strategy might be too onerous, or that your participation just won’t make a difference, well, think again. The inventive members of the Paradise Women’s Institute’s reported that their April Meeting was all about buying local, a thoughtful session getting caught up on where our food comes from, what the real ‘cost’ of food is and sharing what they were all doing to sustain local industry. They came up with a novel concept that we can all consider to begin our journey down the path to better upporting our community producers.

Come to think of it, maybe you should start right in this weekend with your newly energized “buy local” resolve by remembering to visit the area’s farm markets. This is the time of year when they are relocating and reopening all across Annapolis Digby. For example, the Bridgetown market begins on Tuesday, May 17th from 2-6pm beside Endless Shores Books. The fabled Annapolis Royal Farmers and Traders Market returns to its seasonal location at the Town Centre on St George Street this Saturday from its winter home at the Historic Gardens (yes, Virginia, it’s open year round as Annapolis Royal Mayor Phil Roberts so promptly and properly reminded me after a posting of a couple of weeks ago), and on Sunday the Bear River Farmers’ and Artists Market re-opens on the waterfront from 1-4 PM. They’re all around us – check your local community web sites for more information.

And, by the way, continuing on the theme of local eco-innovation, congratulations to the team from Digby Regional High School for their stellar Silver performance at the recent provincial Envirothon competition.

Tidal Teamwork Touted
One of the great memories from youthful Sunday evenings spent staring at the black and white flickering of the “Ed Sullivan Show” was the occasional appearance of one James Francis “Jimmy” Durante. I just loved the guy. And while many are familiar with his signature sign off of “Good Night Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are”; I chortled more at his frequent observation that “Everybody wants ta get inta the act.” OK, maybe I wasn’t a normal kid. Nonetheless, and in a very positive way, I was reminded of that line as things continued to get more and more active in the area of tidal energy development in the Bay of Fundy. At a recent session in Digby hosted by ADEDA, developers of a tidal power project in Maine were urging consideration of a regional approach with those developers creating similar small scale projects in this area. It’s a good point and there definitely was continued activity to report on that topic as ongoing small scale tidal energy testing plans were being made for the areas of Long and Brier Islands on Digby Neck.

Celebratory Summer Planned
I’m as guilty as anyone about sometimes taking for granted the historic sites that dot Annapolis Digby, figuring I’ve already seen what’s to be seen. That of course would be a mistake any time, because there’s always something new on display. And it’s especially true this year. In 2011, Parks Canada is celebrating its 100th birthday as the world’s first national parks service and yesterday, May 15, Parks Canada’s Fort Anne and Port-Royal National historic sites opened for a particularly exciting season with new exhibits, cultural programming, and with a long list of celebratory birthday events being planned.

Communicating Change
Most writers, me included, take a deliberately solitary approach to our craft, not wanting to share our editorial space. But in this case there’s an exceptional inclusion that’s important for all of us. We’re making changes to our communications strategies here at ADEDA, and our interim Managing Director Dan Harvey wanted to use the newsletter, among other venues, to directly outline what’s happening in this area. Here’s Dan’s message:

“As any not-for-profit group can attest, making the call on judicious use of limited financial resources can be an enormous challenge.
It’s no different here at ADEDA- in the course of preparing our work plan for this year, we carefully scrutinized how we are applying the funding we are given: what items are essential, what are discretionary, costs and benefits, and so on. All of these questions were asked objectively, in the light of the deliverables in our current Business Plan.

Our data on your usage of our weekly newsletter indicates your needs and expectations with respect this communication vehicle are less. One of the things Peter and I concluded when we analyzed the data that there were a lot more Daily Newsletters, Blogs, and Social Media sites, in addition to our strong weekly media coverage, than when the newsletter started 3 years ago.

Feedback from the public has been that they want and need to hear from their Regional Development Authority regularly, but that face-to-face contact is preferred. We agree with that whole-heartedly- you can’t beat the personal touch! To that end, we’ve built into our plan a series of formal connections with town/municipal councils, boards of trade and other business organizations, as well as economic sector groups throughout the year. We see that as the best way to update you on progress, and receive public feedback.

Having said that, we recognize not everyone will be able to access these meetings. So two things will take place: 1. Our Website will be undergoing a re-vamp: we will present more information, in line with our Business Plan themes. 2. The newsletter will remain, but in a monthly format.

The content will remain Local: successful and inspiring people and businesses from our community; major announcements and trends in economic development; profiles of leaders in our region; promotion of important upcoming events taking place in our region; information on new programs that business owners can access by working with our agency or government; profiles on ADEDA board members, and much more
In short, we want the Monthly newsletter to be interesting, informative, and useful to you. We want to share the good news that takes place, and for our readers to feel up-to-date on what your economic development agency is doing on your behalf.

Our weekly newsletters will continue until May 30th, with the next one after that being June 27th, the start of the monthly schedule.

Kind Regards,
Dan Harvey
(902) 638-4009
dharvey@annapolisdigby.com

Till next week;

Peter

Peter MacLellan
Annapolis Digby EDA
86 Atlantic Avenue
PO Box 271
Cornwallis, Nova Scotia
Canada B0S 1H0

Tel: (902) 638-3490
Fax: (902) 638-8106
E: communications@annapolisdigby.com