Economic Development Strategy

The Municipality of South Bruce has developed an Economic Development Strategy to help us grow our community to benefit all residents, businesses, and visitors.

Community-based vision

South Bruce is a growing, dynamic, agriculturally-rooted community that provides accessible and affordable amenities for residents and businesses, creating an environment supportive of growth, vibrant downtowns that foster small business, and a unique, year-round destination experience.

Key opportunities

To promote a thriving future for the South Bruce community, we have outlined the following key opportunities:

Stimulate Downtown revitalization (by leveraging Spruce the Bruce)
Establish a farmers’ market, culinary, and local food experience
Leverage tractor culture to create unique place-based attraction
Prepare and market the South Bruce Business Park
Foster value-added agriculture and food processing
Planned incremental residential development
NWMO adaptive phased management project

Key sector profiles

Our strategy identifies five key sectors that are essential economic drivers for the South Bruce community.

Agriculture

South Bruce supports a total of 21.4% of the agriculture sector within Bruce County. Larger farm operations continue to grow in our area, which brings in new partnerships and opportunities for South Bruce.

Food and beverage manufacturing

South Bruce makes up 50% of Bruce County’s dairy product manufacturing, product manufacturing and beverage manufacturing.

Tourism and hospitality

We support a variety of tourism and hospitality services within South Bruce including:

Hunting and trapping
Beverage manufacturing
Gift stores
Consumer goods rentals
Tourism agencies

Restaurants

Aggregate sector

South Bruce supports cement and concrete product manufacturing, making up one third of the sector within Bruce County.

Wood product manufacturing

We provide 25% of the furniture and kitchen manufacturing within Bruce County, on top of 2.8% in other wood product manufacturing.

Where we are now

We studied our community characteristics to help us learn about our talents, skills, and future growth opportunities. We gathered the information from extensive research and stakeholder engagement sessions.

Demographics

We have recognized the following municipal demographics for South Bruce when comparing our community to Bruce County and Ontario statistics. Our demographics include:

5,639 residents
Median age of 41.5 years
Larger portion of people between the ages 5-19 than Ontario
Larger families with an average of three people per household
Largest growth rate in median household income at 32% (averaging $67,189 for total household income)
Largest growth rate for average value of dwelling at 28%
A labour force in apprenticeships, trades, business, management, and public administration

More development in single detached homes due to low population density

Occupational profile

Our leading sources of employment within South Bruce include:

Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting
Manufacturing

Sectors with the largest growth in workers within South Bruce include:

Manufacturing
Health care and social assistance
Construction

Retail trade

Business patterns assessment

Overall, South Bruce is home to many successful small companies and enterprises. Their focus is in the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting sector and the construction sectors.