'Small Town Love' program comes to 100 Mile House

From Prince George Citizen:

A Quesnel marketing invention is now being used by small towns across the region to keep local money inside the local economy.

A buy-local program called Small Town Love was designed by Quesnel entrepreneur Amy Quarry and tested in Quesnel. According to statistics shared with Northern Development Initiative Trust (NDIT), the all-local retail catalogue got the buy-in of 50 Quesnel businesses, with all copies sold out in less than four months.

Based on those indications, six new communities will try out the Small Town Love concept with the help of NDIT. The north's independent economic development agency invested $75,000 to build a comprehensive Internet system to go along with the printed guides that will be produced.

The intention, said NDIT spokesman Joel McKay, is to "deliver buy-local campaigns to strengthen local businesses, local competitiveness and keep more dollars in the local economy."

The six communities are 100 Mile House, Burns Lake, Fort St. James, Logan Lake, Valemount and Vanderhoof. NDIT's business development manager Renata King said the six communities were chosen because they each have less than 5,000 people.

"While buy-local campaigns can be self-funded by merchants in communities and cities with populations over 5,000, it is very hard for a high quality initiative to be sustainable with the low numbers of independent business owners in most small towns," she said. "This buy-local program is designed to strengthen businesses in small communities."

Although his hometown is not among the six, NDIT's board chair said everyone stands to benefit if the chosen locations improve their internal economies.

"There is solid evidence that successful buy-local campaigns in smaller communities help the economy thrive," said Evan Saugstad. "We believe this pilot program celebrates and supports the growth of fantastic homegrown businesses throughout the region."

Community leaders from these locations are excited to have the opportunity. For example, Vanderhoof mayor Gerry Thiessen said his town "has many unique, independently owned businesses and this program will help shine a new light on them," while Fort St. James mayor Rob MacDougall said the Small Town Love program would "strengthen the resilience of our local economy."