By Carla Allen
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
A team formed in April 2010 to help salvage the region’s economy after ferry service between Yarmouth and New England ended is no longer active.
Team Southwest was a conglomeration of senior federal, provincial and community development officials that met approximately every other month until July 2011. It was co-chaired by officials from ACOA and the Province of Nova Scotia.
Alex Smith, director of communications and outreach for ACOA, says the organization is now backing a new initiative.
“The interim economic development council for which ACOA announced its support in a Jan. 25 news release will be the group building a long-term development strategy and model with interested communities,” Smith said.
During the lifespan of Team Southwest, ACOA provided funding for specific projects only, not for the team’s operations.
Smith listed some of Team Southwest’s accomplishments:
“Shared information on government programming with community stakeholders and identified possible strategies for moving forward; sought input from local communities on potential solutions to strengthen the southwestern Nova Scotia economy; from April 2010 to January 2012, the agency worked with local communities and businesses to support more than 70 projects with ACOA investments in excess of $11.5 million in Digby, Yarmouth, Shelburne, Queens and Lunenburg counties.”
The new economic group consists of eight municipal units in the region (including the three Yarmouth-area units) that will work together in establishing an interim economic development council for a period of 14 months.
The federal and provincial governments are contributing $142,240 each towards the council to lead regional economic development efforts in southwestern Nova Scotia in the absence of a regional development agency.
Read also: Whatever happened to Team West?
