Insights from the My Main Street Programme in Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Southern Ontario, Canada –

• Since 2021, the My Main Street programme has helped main street communities with direct-to-business and community supports to sustain inclusive local business growth and promote vibrant community-centred public spaces.

• The programme shows how federal investment can support main streets and the small businesses that locate there by enabling tailored, data-driven local action and a holistic scope that combines business support, placemaking, and capacity building.

• My Main Street’s data-driven local market insights enabled business owners to better understand their customer base and adapt their strategies, while supporting municipalities to diversify their main street offerings.

What are the objectives?

Main streets are key locations for Canada’s small businesses, which make up over a third of national GDP generated by the private sector. Providing 1.9 million jobs nation-wide, about a fifth of small brick-and-mortar businesses are located on Canadian main streets. In 2020, independent businesses represented 75-80% of total Toronto’s main street establishments. As long-standing and new challenges of location affordability, clientele mobility and shopping habits, and changing business property ownership models exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic have shaken the vitality of main street communities, Canada’s My Main Street programme aims to preserve and renew their legacy as community meeting grounds and hubs of local entrepreneurship.

The My Main Street programme provides assistance to main street communities and businesses across Southern Ontario for revitalisation, recovery and stabilisation efforts from pandemic-related shocks.1 It was kickstarted in 2021 by an initial investment of CAD 23.25 million from the Government of Canada and delivered through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), Renewed in 2024 by a federal investment totalling CAD 15 million, the programme extended its focus to direct-to-business and community supports to sustain inclusive local business growth and promote vibrant community-centred public spaces.

How does it work in practice?

Two streams of support, respectively targeting businesses and placemaking, were delivered during the first round of the My Main Street programme between 2021 and 2023. The “Local Business Accelerator Program,” led by the Economic Developers Council of Ontario (EDCO),2 focused on main street community revitalisation initiatives and direct business grants complemented by market research and business support services. During the second iteration of My Main Street in 2024,3 this first stream became the “Business Sustainability” stream, doubling the initial CAD 10 000 direct contribution amounts to five existing and five new businesses (to be created with programme support) in participating communities. Delivered through FedDev Ontario, the first round of the My Main Street programme was administered in partnership with the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI)4 and the Economic Developers Council of Ontario (EDCO).

The “Community Activator Program” stream, delivered in both programme rounds, aimed to support economic activity on main streets by funding placemaking projects piloted by non-profit organisations, Business Improvement Associations (BIA), and municipalities to attract visitors and increase foot traffic. Prioritising projects with commercial and community importance aiming to minimise barriers to participation for equity-seeking5 groups, the 2024 programme structure provides incentives up to CAD 250 000 through reimbursements for a wide range of events and activations, community enhancements and streetscape improvements. In 2022-2023, the stream delivered CAD 10 million to placemaking initiatives such as local community events and activities as well as main street enhancements through one-time contributions ranging from CAD 25 000 up to CAD 250 000. For example, the initiative supported the restoration and beautification of Little Italy’s main commercial strip in Ottawa, boosting the dynamism of the area brought by a local cultural festival.

Throughout 2022 and 2023, the “Local Business Accelerator” programme components were administered through the appointment of Main Street Ambassadors in participating main street communities. Up to six6 Ambassadors with entrepreneurial aptitudes and backgrounds were locally hired based on the size of each municipality to conduct free business-support consultations with small businesses along their assigned main street and support those applying for direct financial support from the programme. Ambassadors were also tasked with completing their main street(s) Community Market Profile(s), identifying missing products and services from the community and understanding local demographics, mobility, and consumptions habits through primary and secondary market research. To address localised needs and opportunities for programme participants, My Main Street obtains census information from Statistics Canada and partners with a data, analytics, and marketing services firm for proprietary licensed marketing data. In My Main Street’s second iteration, approved applicants in both programme streams receive data insights from a Market Research Report for their community, in consultation with the Canadian Urban Institutes’ Portfolio Managers.

What has been the impact?

From the initial target of 150 projects in 65 main street communities, 170 initiatives across 88 towns and cities were supported by the Community Activator stream in 2022 and 2023. One of these is the main street community in downtown Kitchener, a 285 000-inhabitant midsize city in Southeastern Ontario. A placemaking ice rink project in the city centre’s marketplace in 2021 benefitted 110 local businesses inside and adjacent to the market and drew in the participation of fifty new local small businesses in its winter programming. Furthermore, insights from the Canadian Urban Institute found that the Kitchener BIA patio programme (outdoor customer seating extensions for food and drink businesses) supported by My Main Street generated a 3.4 return on investment, with CAD 3.2 million, which amounts to 9% of a total CAD 37 million of credit and bank card sales over the 2021 and 2022 summer months. The patio initiative has since become a hallmark of Kitchener’s warmer months, with the Downtown Kitchener BIA funding the programme and the city streamlining administrative processes to facilitate business participation. The additional space helps businesses expand their capacity, while community patios further enhance the overall appeal of public spaces, attracting more visitors to the city centre.

On the business support side, the programme equips business owners with in-depth, customised local market research insights to gain an understanding of their customer base’s general market behaviour, demographics, and media communication and consumption habits. With these insights, programme beneficiaries have been able to fill existing market gaps and develop an online presence through advertising, social media, and by bringing part of their inventory online. In the first programme round, these insights also benefitted localities at the municipal level as trade area mobility data was used by historically tourism-driven small-town communities such as Stratford and Wiarton to diversify their main streets’ offerings and capitalise on changing local shopping patterns brought about by population shifts towards rural communities as a result of the pandemic.

What can other communities learn from this example?

• Highlighting how federal funding can enable tailored local support, My Main Street combines a national platform with regional focus and local implementation. The programme shows how federal investment can support main streets and the small businesses that locate there by enabling tailored, data-driven local action and a holistic scope that combines business support, placemaking, and capacity building. Through a data-driven approach and on-the-ground main street ambassadors, the programme can address hyper local realities and challenges. Mobilising granular insights mediated by programme agents from strong data partners operating at a broad scale, communities and businesses alike can operationalise concrete strategies according to their needs and unique opportunities. By dedicating a substantive portion of its resources (25%) to rural communities, it also to aspires for a more equitable geographic reach across diverse local contexts.

• A holistic scope – spanning business support, placemaking, and capacity building – can help foster vibrant and dynamic main streets. By approaching retail and community infrastructure as interlinked components of local vitality, the programme supports both economic activity and the social fabric of main streets. This integrated perspective strengthens local entrepreneurship and initiatives with bottom-up buy-in, helping to sustain their impact over time.

Further information

Home - My Main Street

The OECD PLACES portal

OECD resources

The Twin Transition and the Future of Retail SMEs in Urban and Rural Areas

Re-imagining town centres: Local lessons from Japan and the UK (webinar held on 25 November 2024): Re-imagining town centres: Local lessons from Japan and the UK | OECD

OECD (2024). Town centre shopping at a crossroad: exploring (green and digital) avenues for reinvention, Town centre shopping at a crossroad: exploring (green and digital) avenues for reinvention.

OECD (2023). Greening high streets: sustaining community centres, Greening high streets: sustaining community centres (oecd.org).

OECD (2023). Nature-based solutions for city centre revitalisation, Nature-based solutions for city centre revitalisation (oecd.org).

From “mom and pops” to “pop-ups”: Local development and the future of retail (webinar held on 12 July 2022): https://www.oecd.org/local-forum/events/webinars/localdevelopmentandthefutureofretail.htm

Main streets at a crossroad: Experiences from Australia (webinar held on 29 November 2022): https://www.oecd.org/local-forum/events/webinars/main-streets-at-a-crossroad.htm

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Notes

← 1.  The current iteration of the programme now includes Toronto.

← 2.  EDCO is a membership-based nonprofit association of economic development professionals.

← 3.  The Canadian Urban Institute became the sole operator of the programme for 2024.

← 4.  The Canadian Urban Institute is a national nonprofit organisation active since 1990 as a cross-sectoral platform for research, advocacy and events on Canadian urbanism.

← 5.  According to the programme, equity-seeking groups include Francophone, women, Indigenous, racialized groups, Black communities, newcomers, youth (39 and under), people living with disabilities, unhoused, low-income people, Trans or non-binary people, and/or 2SLGBQIA+.

← 6.  The number of Main Street Ambassadors focused on a corresponding number of Main Street neighbourhoods was broken down according to municipality population size as follows: 4 – 6 Ambassadors above 500 000 inhabitants, 2 – 4 between 100 000 and 500 000, 1 – 2 between 50 000 – 100 000, and 1 under 50 000 (A minimum of 25 percent of the Main Street Ambassador contributions were reserved for communities with populations less than 50 000).