Ottawa invests $500K on program to help Edmonton businesses grow

Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages Mélanie Joly announced the federal government is funding a program to help local business grow. Feb. 11, 2020. (Evan Klippenstein/CTV News Edmonton)

EDMONTON — An investment of $596,300 in GO Productivity, a program aimed at helping businesses grow, was announced Tuesday morning by Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages Mélanie Joly.

She made the funding announcement after touring Imark Architectural Metals in northwest Edmonton.

Imark is one of 30 medium sized businesses in Alberta and B.C., including five Indigenous companies, benefiting from the GO Productivity Assessment Roadmap Coaching (ARC) pilot program.

The ARC program helps medium-sized companies with approximately 30-50 employees expand by focusing on multiple areas, including:

Minister Joly says funding like this helps western Canada diversify its economy.

"Strong and growing businesses are essential to western Canada’s success and growth," Joly said. "By investing in local organizations like GO Productivity, we support local creators entrepreneurs and innovative companies and help them to improve their productivity, grow their business, and become global leaders."

GO Productivity is a not-for-profit and a strategic partner with NAIT.