Our Partners

Diamond

Indigenous Services Canada works collaboratively with partners to improve access to high quality services for First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Our vision is to support and empower Indigenous peoples to independently deliver services and address the socio-economic conditions in their communities.

Destination British Columbia (Destination BC) is a provincially funded, industry-led Crown corporation that supports a strong and competitive future for BC‘s tourism industry through a combination of global marketing, destination development, industry learning, cooperative community-based programs, and visitor servicing. Destination BC receives approximately $52 million each year, out of a Provincial investment of about $140 million in BC‘s tourism ecosystem as a whole. These investments help to improve the visitor experience, support businesses and communities, and strengthen BC‘s worldwide reputation as a destination of choice.

Nestled between two lakes, Penticton enjoys long, hot summers, dry winters and more than 2,000 hours of sunshine each year. We’re located in the southern Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, which is easily accessed by major highways and airports.

We're known for our beaches, wine and orchards, not to mention a wide range of outdoor recreational activities. Hop on your bike to discover award-winning wineries and trails with stellar views. Shop at the bustling outdoor market, peruse art galleries or go skating at the modern Community Centre. Ski champagne powder slopes or take in a hockey game or concert at the South Okanagan Events Centre.

Penticton is located on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Syilx/Okanagan people. Its name, from the Interior Salish word snpintktn, is commonly translated as "a place to stay forever," or more accurately, a place where people live year-round. It’s the kind of place where people come to visit for the holidays – and never want to leave.

The Northern Development Initiative Trust board, regional advisory committees and staff have a passion for growing the economy of central and northern British Columbia. When the Premier of British Columbia announced the Northern Development Initiative Trust, it was on the premise that, The best economic development decisions for the North should be made in the North.

Northern Development is an independent, non-profit corporation; a catalyst stimulating economic growth through investments in grassroots, community-led projects.

Platinum

BC Hydro is a Crown corporation, owned by the government and people of British Columbia. It’s our job to safely provide our customers with reliable, affordable and clean electricity throughout the province. For new customers, our Business & Economic Development team provides a single point of entry for businesses wanting to locate in British Columbia. We are here to help prospective customers understand how to get connected to our clean electricity grid, anticipated electricity costs, electrification incentives and possible options for where to locate. To get in touch with the team, please visit: bchydro.com/newbusiness

Cando (Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers) is a federally registered, non-profit society that is Indigenous controlled, community based, and membership driven. Cando is directed by a national regionally represented volunteer board of elected EDOs representing every region of Canada.

Cando has been instrumental in facilitating partnerships with EDOs, academics, Indigenous leaders and senior corporate and government representatives. Cando is unique because it is the only national organization that focuses on education and professional development for EDOs working in Indigenous communities or organizations.

ResearchFDI is a world-class investment attraction consultancy, delivering customized strategies and research-driven programs for economic development organizations and regional promotion agencies worldwide. Founded in Montreal in 2010, the firm has expanded to include offices, consultants, and partners across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Asia —facilitating over $50 billion in capital investments and generating high-value projects for more than 300 entities globally. ResearchFDI’s core services include developing market and sector profiles, foreign direct investment strategies, lead generation programs, investment attraction training, strategy reports and other services tailored to facilitating inward investments. The firm's mission is to position clients to identify and secure high-value inward investment opportunities efficiently.

Gold

Localintel provides online location marketing tools that hundreds of economic developers have added to their website to promote their community's advantages and assist businesses. Our clients range from the small rural Village of Hazelton to the Government of British Columbia, Invest Ottawa and the cities of New Westminster, Coquitlam, Terrace and Penticton. Learn more at www.ecdev.org.

We are a 100% Indigenous-owned and operated consulting firm. Indigenous values and culture drive our lens in how we approach our consulting work. In larger projects, we offer capacity development with Indigenous organizations by including hiring, training, and inclusion in project costs. It’s time for those who lead and take care of what’s most important, the now and the future. It's all we have and what we will leave.

Economic development benefits communities, industries and people in regions across B.C. Find funding, tools, resources, best practices and services to support your community’s economic goals, whether you’re urban or rural, large or small, Indigenous or non-Indigenous.

Discover the beauty of British Columbia and its opportunities—learn about immigration, jobs, qualifications recognition, support services and more!

Silver

Co-operatives First is a non-profit organization funded by Federated Co-operatives Limited and the Co-operative Retailing System. Founded in 2015, the organization provides co-op start-up resources, such as feasibility studies, business plans, and incorporation support to rural and Indigenous co-op entrepreneurs across western Canada. Our goal is to help leaders in these communities build new businesses, grow local economies, and support community development.

EMC has grown to become Canada's largest manufacturing consortium and with over one thousand industry events annually, is one of the most active manufacturing organizations in North America! For more than a quarter century EMC has been responsible for contributing significant knowledge, expertise and resources towards the success of over 13,000 consortium and online member manufacturers, representing every province across Canada. EMC's total manufacturing audience includes 40,000+ employers and 600,000 manufacturing employees. Founded in the mid-1980's and incorporated in 1997, EMC facilitates events in more than 60 consortium regions, across more than 450 communities. Offering a broad range of hands-on programs and services, EMC is helping manufacturers to lower costs, access greater opportunities to compete for business and improve efficiencies in dealing with the day-to-day complexities of running a manufacturing operation. Become a member today.

Vertical farming solutions backed by industry-leading research.

Grow hyper-local produce with customizable, turn-key modular vertical farms. Growcer gets you growing and keeps you growing.

Bronze

We understand the critical challenges facing B.C.’s agriculture sector. To help address these challenges, we are here to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and agriproducers to develop products and help position British Columbia as a world leader in agritech.

The Cityviz data platform is a comprehensive, highly modular, customizable and affordable solution for communities and regions of all sizes. We keep adding new features and datasets to Cityviz at no additional cost. We are focused on helping economic development professionals, investors and entrepreneurs have all relevant data in one place, always up to date, pre-processed and ready to use. Our mission is to deliver exceptional data products and customer service. We listen to your needs and adapt our solutions to suit your requirements.

Our Economic Trust contributes to economic growth and diversity in the Southern Interior of BC.

We add value to our region through

Helping build the region’s economic development capacity
Assisting our partners as they support local businesses
Encouraging entrepreneurship and the creation of meaningful jobs
Providing support to key sectors of our region’s economy to innovate and be more sustainable

ExecutivePulse is the only Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution built by economic developers, for economic developers. Our CRM’s intuitive design allows users to easily create at-a-glance reports and presentations, optimize their internal and external communication, and track the progress of their initiatives.

FortisBC delivers natural gas, electricity and innovative energy solutions to approximately 1.2 million customers in 135 communities throughout the province. We believe in building stronger communities. That‘s what drives us to be innovators in the energy sector, offering renewable and alternative energy solutions for homes, businesses and transportation in BC and beyond. We‘re also rethinking BC‘s lower carbon future with our 30BY30 target to reduce our customers‘ emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 and all the ways we‘re working with British Columbians to create a cleaner energy future together.

Manifold is a specialist in Consumer Data Products, Analytics, and Predictive Modeling. We are a leading data and analytical service provider in Canada. We have been providing hundreds of economic developers and governmental organizations with precise and comprehensive data products for decades. Our products include geo-demographic, multi-year population projections, household spending, lifestyle clusters, dashboards and more. All data products are available at the 6-digit postal code level and have also been used at the CSD, CD, and CY levels.

Economic developers use our data because it is timelier with annual updates as opposed to the Census polled every five years with a two-year publishing delay and resolves issues unaddressed by the Census such as undercounts and data suppression. With our update frequency, demographic changes are reflected in our data such as population spikes and the record-breaking high in population growth throughout 2022 and 2023.

WeBC is a not-for-profit that has been supporting women business owners across the province for over 25 years. Working with our regional partners, we’ve provided thousands of entrepreneurs with business loans and expertise, training, resources, and peer network support to help businesses grow and thrive.