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The Government of Canada believes that strong regions are the building blocks of a strong nation. For this reason it is committed to helping Canadians in all parts of the country build strong regional economies as the foundation for job creation and higher earned incomes.
The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) is a Government of Canada agency whose mission is to work in partnership with the people of Atlantic Canada to improve the economy of our communities through the successful development of businesses and employment opportunities.
Created in 1987, ACOA offers a broad range of programs and services designed to create economic growth and business opportunities in Atlantic Canada. The Agency ensures that a wide variety of business development tools and resources are available to Atlantic entrepreneurs throughout all stages of the business lifecycle, from the time they are thinking about setting up a new business, to the time they are planning for growth and expansion.
ACOA is a federal agency with a difference. Its mandate and organizational structure were determined following consultations with Atlantic Canadians across the region. For the first time, a federal organization charged with regional economic development in Atlantic Canada is actually headquartered in the region (in Moncton, N.B.) with regional and field offices in cities and towns across the four Atlantic provinces. In Cape Breton, ACOA's programs are delivered by Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation.
ACOA approaches its work in a strategic manner, focusing on creating economic growth through innovation; research and development; business expansion; entrepreneurship and business skills development; trade and investment promotion; community economic development; and building the region's infrastructure.
ACOA's key objectives are to build a stronger Atlantic economy by:
- improving the growth and competitiveness of Atlantic enterprises;
- helping rural communities become more economically self-reliant; and
- influencing and coordinating national policies and investments that affect economic growth in Atlantic Canada.
The Agency works towards these objectives through six strategic priority areas.
The Reason:
Relevant and effective government action in the region requires the best and most current research and information on the specific economic challenges and opportunities facing the economy of the Atlantic region. ACOA has a legislated mandate to advocate for Atlantic Canada's interests, priorities and concerns in federal government policy making, program design and direct investments.
The Focus:
ACOA carries out a policy and research agenda that is based on comprehensive regional experience, information from economic development stakeholders and partners, and a growing body of research and consultation. The approach focuses on emerging regional, provincial and local economic issues; structural conditions within the Atlantic region; sector-specific considerations; key federal policies and ACOA's own priorities and program initiatives.
The Reason:
Innovative companies are growing companies. They create jobs and new opportunities for businesses faster and more successfully than do their less innovative counterparts. Building an environment where more companies can fully participate in, and contribute to, the global, knowledge-based economy is key to Atlantic Canada's long-term competitiveness.
The Focus:
Specifically, the Agency focuses on improving the region's capacity to carry out leading-edge research and development; facilitating the commercialization of new technologies; helping companies adopt the latest technologies and upgrade their technology skills; and encouraging partnerships and alliances among private sector firms, universities and research institutions.
The Reason:
Trade fuels economic growth, building business opportunities and generating jobs. Every $1 million in increased export value results in 11 new jobs for Atlantic Canadians. At the same time, increased foreign direct investment accelerates the development of new commercial opportunities and industrial infrastructure necessary to create a critical mass of business expansion. Capitalizing on the region's tourism potential both promotes Atlantic Canada abroad in important markets, and provides significant employment and business opportunities at home.
The Focus:
ACOA works with its partners to increase export activity in Atlantic Canada by focusing on export awareness and training, market information and intelligence, financial assistance for export development, and international business development.
ACOA's investment strategy is working towards positioning Atlantic Canada as a location of choice for foreign direct investment. Investment activities include research, promotion, intelligence gathering and dissemination, and investment partnerships.
The Agency's tourism strategy involves working in partnership with the Atlantic provincial governments and several important industry stakeholders to develop high-quality tourism products and to promote the region as a world-class tourism destination.
The Reason:
Investing in the development of existing and potential entrepreneurs is fundamental to ensuring that business start-ups and expansions continue to generate new wealth and employment. Enhancing business management skills in small and medium-sized enterprises increases business survival, growth and productivity rates.
The Focus:
ACOA works to create an environment in which entrepreneurship is widely perceived as a career option, and life-long learning is considered an essential component of the region's business culture. The Agency's strategy focuses on providing more entrepreneurial opportunities and services for young people and women and helping small business owners and their employees acquire the latest in business and technology skills.
The Reason:
The long-term economic health of Atlantic communities is essential to the long-term health of the regional economy in general. If strong regions make for a strong nation, then strong communities make for a strong region.
The Focus:
ACOA's mission with respect to Community Economic Development is to help communities plan and implement their own individual visions for long-term, self-sustaining economic activity. The Agency works with its regional and local partners to: support counselling and financial services for entrepreneurs; improve the availability of business capital in rural areas; create sustainable jobs; strengthen the strategic planning process; and to empower each community to successfully direct its own future.
The Reason:
Small and medium-sized enterprises are the engines of growth in the Atlantic economy, generating nearly 60 per cent of all new jobs. Therefore, support for their start-up, expansion, and modernization is crucial to the overall health of the Atlantic regional economy.
The Focus:
ACOA helps address the most critical financing needs of small and medium-sized enterprises by making available interest-free loans for business start-ups, expansions and modernizations as well as for investment in new technology, software, prototype development, staff training, export development, and quality improvement measures. These investment areas, which are fundamental to a business' continued competitiveness, often do not meet either the risk requirements (i.e. security) of commercial lenders, or the size requirements of venture capitalists. ACOA helps fill the gap.
The Agency also helps bridge the flow of business information to Atlantic entrepreneurs by providing a client-centred business information network through the Atlantic Canada Business Service Centres and other support organizations.
Business Development Program
The Business Development Program provides financial assistance to entrepreneurs to help them start-up, expand or modernize their business. Loans are interest-free and unsecured, and are provided especially for those projects considered to be critical to competitiveness but are often considered to be too risky for conventional lenders.
Atlantic Investment Partnership
In June 2000, the Government of Canada introduced the Atlantic Investment Partnership (AIP) to help the Atlantic region benefit more directly from, and overcome the challenges associated with, the knowledge-based economy. The AIP's priorities of innovation, community economic development, entrepreneurship and business skills development, and trade build on the success of ACOA's existing programs. This initiative includes four components administered by ACOA.
- The Atlantic Innovation Fund is designed to strengthen the economy by accelerating the development of knowledge-based industries. The fund finances research and development and related initiatives in the areas of natural and applied sciences or their commercialization.
- The Strategic Community Investment Fund helps communities throughout Atlantic Canada create opportunities for economic development in order to stimulate investment and job creation. The fund assists in creating an environment in Atlantic communities that encourages and enhances the development of strategic sectors, the adjustment to a knowledge-based economy, the adoption of new technologies and innovative practices, and the capacity to compete in the global economy.
- the Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership helps small and medium-sized businesses access the skills and opportunities they need to export their products and services through key initiatives such as: Team Canada Atlantic missions; the development of sector export strategies; trade education and skills development activities; and export internships for university and college graduates of international trade programs. The Atlantic Investment Strategy attracts increased foreign direct investment in Atlantic Canada through investment research, promotional activities and partnerships.
- The Entrepreneurship and Business Skills Development Partnership seeks to ensure that entrepreneurs are equipped with the best available technological, innovation and business management skills through a series of strategic investments with partners and stakeholders throughout the region. The Partnership includes three key elements: the Innovation Skills Development Initiative, the Women in Business Initiative and the Young Entrepreneur Development Initiative.
Canada Business Service Centres
The Canada Business Service Centres (CBSCs) provide business people in every part of Canada with access to accurate, timely and relevant business information and referrals. The CBSCs reduce the complexity of dealing with various levels of government by serving as a central resource for Canadian business information. ACOA manages the CBSCs in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Community Business Development Corporations
Community Business Development Corporations are autonomous, not-for-profit corporations serving rural Atlantic Canada. They provide financing to help create, expand, modernize and stabilize small businesses. They also help entrepreneurs find the information, advice and capital they need to succeed.
Infrastructure Canada Program
The Infrastructure Canada Program is enhancing municipal infrastructure in communities across the country and improving Canada's quality of life through investments that protect the environment and support long-term economic growth. In Atlantic Canada the Infrastructure Canada agreements are managed by ACOA, on behalf of the Government of Canada, and the four provincial governments.
Pan-Atlantic Economic Development Agreements
These agreements are comprehensive, multi-sectoral initiatives designed to strengthen and support economically significant activities, such as trade and tourism. Current pan-Atlantic agreements include the Canada/Atlantic Provinces COOPERATION Agreement on International Business Development and the Atlantic Canada Tourism Partnership.
Bilateral Economic Development Agreements
These are comprehensive, federal-provincial, cost-shared agreements involving strategic investments designed to benefit an industry, a sector, a community, and/or a province.
Current bilateral agreements include the the Canada/Newfoundland Comprehensive Economic Development Agreement and the Cape Breton Growth Fund.
Adjustment Programs
ACOA administers several adjustment programs in Atlantic Canada on behalf of the Government of Canada. These programs provide assistance to communities to help them develop alternate forms of employment where traditional industries had suffered a downturn. A recent example of an adjustment program is the Softwood Industry and Community Economic Adjustment Initiative.
Other Activities
ACOA partners with other federal departments to help develop and deliver federal programs and investments in the Atlantic region.
ACOA is also actively involved in initiatives to promote Aboriginal Business development in Atlantic Canada and is also involved in the Government of Canada's Canadian Rural Partnership.
ACOA has always operated with a clear set of strategic priorities. Each year, the Agency outlines its key objectives for each strategic priority in its Report on Plans and Priorities and reports on its accomplishments in the annual Performance Report.
Some important performance results include:
- ACOA-assisted firms have consistently outperformed Atlantic firms generally, both in job creation and earned income growth.
- The five-year survival rate of ACOA-assisted business start-ups is two-and-a-half times better than that of all new businesses in the Atlantic region.
- ACOA program spending generates, on average, $1.25 in tax revenues for every dollar invested in business start-ups and expansions.
- The unemployment rate in Atlantic Canada is 2.8 % lower as a result of ACOA programming.
At ACOA we believe that a healthy environment is essential to the development of a strong, growing and sustainable economy. We are committed to protecting the environment of this region by promoting sustainable businesses and communities in Atlantic Canada and by setting an example in the environmental management of ACOA's own operations.
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