SUMMARY Brantford, Ontario experienced an economic crisis which damaged its downtown. This article explains how downtown Brantford has reinvented itself as a creative economy as promoted in the report “Ontario in the Creative Age”1
prepared for the
Province of Ontario by Roger Martin and Richard Florida from the Martin Prosperity Institute. Brantford has implemented many of the actions suggested and the benefi ts are now becoming apparent.
RÉSUMÉ Brantford, Ontario a subi une crise économique qui a eu un eff et dévastateur sur son centre. Cet article révèle la façon dont Brantford a réinventé son centre-ville en économie créative tel que privilégié dans l’étude « Ontario in the Creative Age »¹ préparé pour la province de l’Ontario par Roger Martin et Richard Florida du Martin Prosperity Institute. La ville de Brantford a procédé à la mise en œuvre de nombreuses recommandations découlant de cette étude, dont les bienfaits sont de plus en plus évidents.
INTRODUCTION
Brantford, Ontario once exemplifi ed the manufacturing might of Ontario. However, by the mid-1980s it had fallen into a decade-long economic crisis as its manufac- turing base declined. With the completion of Highway 403 in 1997 linking Brantford and Hamilton, the economic crisis began to ease. However, downtown Brantford con- tinued to deteriorate, and by 2000 it was economically shattered. Colborne Street, once a major commercial street, had become blighted, a symbol of the down- town’s inability to renew itself. In 2009, the Martin Prosperity
Institute, in researching Brantford’s eco- nomic performance, concluded that Brantford was performing below average on the overall indicators and its Creativity Index ranking refl ected its poor perfor- mance on the 3Ts (technology, talent and tolerance).2
to Ontario’s creative economy, Brantford has tried a number of ideas to resuscitate its downtown, which is now seeing some benefi ts. Downtown Brantford has embraced the creative economy, and the attributes of this transformation are as follows:
> the attraction of three post-secondary Institutions to downtown;
> developing connections to two economi- cally vibrant regions;
> declaring downtown Brantford an Urban Growth Centre so as to assist in creating density levels that will encour- age the creation of a complete and creative community;
> implementing a Downtown Master Plan;
> the use of grants to attract creative enterprises; and
> the identifi cation of downtown as a “cul- tural district” in the Brantford Cultural Plan.
05 10 N Kilometres 20 Hwy 403 Brantford Brantford VIA Rail Station Hamilton Hamilton GO Station A “TOWN-GOWN” STRATEGY
The City pursued a “town-gown” strategy of using post-secondary institutions as anchors for development. In 1999 the City attracted a satellite campus of Wilfrid Laurier University (wlu) by giving them the former downtown Carnegie Library and a renovation grant. During its fi rst year of operation, 39 Laurier students became the fi rst “foot soldiers” in the battle to reclaim downtown by repopulating the building and the streets. Other buildings and grants soon followed. By 2002, City Council implemented its General Plan for downtown and initiated a downtown
Community Improvement Plan, which included grants to encourage reinvestment. Wilfrid Laurier University would be
joined by Nipissing University and Mohawk College, which have both estab- lished a presence in downtown Brantford and have together developed a unique part- nership. In 2002 Nipissing University was given the former Public Utilities Commission building as its campus and partnered with wlu in a concurrent educa- tion program where students could attain a B.A. from Laurier and a B. Ed from Nipissing. Its success with its education degree has recently attained it the presti- gious Schulich School of Education
Despite its limited contribution Waterloo Kitchener Cambridge Lake Ontario QEW Hwy 401 Hwy 403 Hwy 407 21
p l an c ana da | summe r · étÉ 201 1
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