"Hamilton is open for business."

With those few words, Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger tackled a long-held perception about the city at a community briefing held yesterday following up the progress out of the city's first economic summit held in May.

Eisenberger cited investments in economic development, mass transit, affordable housing, the Lister Block, the McMaster Innovation Park and the cleanup of Randle Reef as proof the city is moving in the right direction.

"We're on the move and we're making significant progress," Eisenberger told about 75 people, many of whom were unable to attend the sold-out May summit.

He said Hamilton's new collaborative approach to economic development will make the city "unstoppable."

City economic development director Neil Everson outlined the city's related initiatives in 2007, highlighting record building permit values of $801 million, 682 new jobs attracted to the city, $8 million in brownfield redevelopment and efforts to streamline approval processes.

He said his department is working on new strategies for economic development, marketing, business retention and expansion, brownfield development and employment lands.

Mohawk president and honorary summit co-chair MaryLynn West-Moynes said creating change means taking risks and celebrating successes and failures. "It will take a lot of courage. We're on a journey to create an economic future for this community. The old way was to let council do it all by itself and we sit back and take shots at it. That doesn't work anymore."

An earlier joint report written by the City of Hamilton, the Jobs Prosperity Collaborative and the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce called for the creation of a common framework on economic development for the city. That vision was released yesterday and will be steered primarily by the JPC, a civic coalition of more than 60 leaders.

The framework focuses on six key areas:

* innovation, learning and immigration (linking discovery, development and deployment; attracting talented immigrants; leveraging assets in education and training);

* Hamilton's image (new marketing plan identifying key features; soon-to-be announced Hamilton Ambassador Program);

* commercial/industrial land strategy (linked to and integrated with transportation logistics);

* one-window, customer-focused planning process (predictable timelines, emphasis on collaboration to build investor confidence);

* quality of life (combine existing and future community attributes in arts/culture, heritage preservation, ecology, health, poverty reduction);

* economic portfolio (build on economic development department strategy to better define economic clusters, respective value chains, opportunities for business retention and expansion).

Each focus area will be led by a community champion with expertise, and tackled by a team representing a cross-section of the city.

mmacleod@thespec.com

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