Community Development Projects

Brockton is supporting young entrepreneurs through the new Saugeen Student Start-Up Program, which gives students in Grades 6-12 the chance to start their own businesses with a grant and paid training over the summer months. 

The program is open to students in Brockton, Hanover, West Grey, Arran-Elderslie, Minto and North Wellington who apply each spring in order to launch their businesses by summer. Application forms and more details are available on the Saugeen Connects website. Several hundred students have taken advantage of the program since it was launched in 2019!

Let us know if you are interested in helping to support the program. We are very grateful to our 2022 sponsors, including the Walkerton Rotary Club and Bruce County's Economic Development Department. 

The outside of your business counts as much as the inside, and we have a facade program to help you look your best and attract customers! The Brockton Façade Improvement Program is administered by the municipality's Economic Development Committee with the objective of enhancing the exterior appearance of businesses within the Community Improvement Area of Walkerton.

Visit the Brockton Facade Improvement Program page for more information and to download an application form. 

Brockton Community Improvement Plan 

The Municipality of Brockton is updating its Community Improvement Plan (CIP) and will hold an online Public Meeting on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at 7 p.m. to consider changes to the plan.

The CIP update will provide a framework to encourage the maintenance and rehabilitation of existing commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings and structures, improvement of commercial signage, and redevelopment of vacant and underutilized properties and buildings.

The updated CIP allows for six (6) financial assistance programs to registered owners, tenants of land and buildings within the Community Improvement Area that will assist with building façade & signage improvements, accessibility improvements, environmental stewardship and energy efficiency, vacant property conversion/expansion, and farm gate improvements.

The CIP revisions also involve an adjustment of Brockton's community improvement project areas (CIPAs) to include the settlement areas of historic downtown Walkerton, Cargill, Chepstow, Elmwood and Pinkerton, and as well as the full extent of the municipality for certain programs.

You can download the full Community Improvement Plan Update here, including maps of the new CIPAs.

For further information please email ppeirol@brockton.ca or call 519-881-2223 ext 131. 

Business Retention and Expansion Project (BR+E)

The Municipality of Brockton is committed to its local businesses and aims to help them thrive. In 2018 it completed a BR+E project surveying 52 businesses, both urban and rural, seeking to to identify opportunities and remove any barriers to retain and grow existing businesses.

Results and recommendations are contained in the Business Retention and Expansion Project Final Report, approved by Brockton Council in November, 2018. 

The businesses surveyed rated Brockton's location, quality of life, cost of doing business, customer loyalty, small town setting, attractive community and thriving downtown as some of the top advantages to running a business in Brockton. Eighty-one percent of those surveyed said their businesses were either stable or expanding. 

Four key priority areas were identified in the study, with action plans for each:

• Population Growth
• Business Browth 
• Communication
• Amenities

The BR&E project was designed to strengthen the community, enable business development, investment and job creation, and solidify relationships between organizations.  Existing businesses are committed to the community and the Municipality is committed to their success.  

Bruce County provides assistance to business owners through the Business to Bruce Program, which supports business development, recruitment and enhancement.

The program focuses on inspiring, attracting and supporting business owners and entrepreneurs by engaging and mobilizing the local business communities and municipalities while using County level resources to give the project reach and scale. 

Spruce the Bruce supports local community efforts to facilitate downtown revitalization plans, bringing together stakeholders to build community capacity and assist with strategic policy and capital investment.

The program provides communities with the resources to develop strategies and implementation methods necessary to maintain and grow healthy commercial areas in association with the County and various partners.

View the Walkerton Toolkit for more information on Walkerton's marketing, physical design branding, organization and collaboration efforts, and economic development goals.