Is your community interested in learning more about how a Business Retention and Expansion (BR+E) can help you engage with local businesses and take strategic actions to support businesses in your community? Plan to attend the Ministry of Rural Affair’s upcoming BR+E training sessions to learn about best practices for engaging businesses and the steps to start a BR+E project. 

This 3-part interactive virtual training series will take place in May 2026:

• Session 1 Thursday, May 7 – 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
• Session 2 Thursday, May 14 – 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
• Session 3 Thursday, May 21 – 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

A structured BR+E process can help identify actions to support local businesses and foster growth by:

• prioritizing business engagement
• identifying key challenges and opportunities
• providing insight to develop long-term goals and actions
• BR+E fundamentals which include the four stages of the Ontario BR+E process will be covered in this training

More detailed information about the Ontario BR+E program can be found here.

Contact Crystal Ellis (Crystal.ellis@ontario.ca) for further details on the training or if you have any questions.