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Featured Initiative: Midwestern Ontario Green Job Strategy In 2010, the Bruce Community Futures Development Corporation along with five other CFDC offices in Midwestern Ontario, the Four County Labour Market Planning Board and the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority began a collaborative project to develop a comprehensive strategy to identify opportunities in the growing green economy. The mandate of Green Jobs Strategy (GJS) in Year 1 was to develop a comprehensive labour market strategy for growth in the region’s green economy. It was generally believed that Ontario’s new Green Energy & Economy Act stood to make this province the most progressive energy and environmental jurisdiction in North America with estimates that the Act would help create over 50,000 “green collar” jobs in the next decade. Current policy incentives in Ontario are providing initial motivation for looking to the Green Economy as a future source of jobs and as a way of addressing the pressing environmental issues of Midwestern Ontario. Fortunately, the same features that have made Midwestern Ontario one of the most productive rural areas in Canada also lend themselves well to the creation of a sustainable “green” economy. These features include an abundance of natural resources, supportive social capital in the form of effective community organizations, and most importantly, an entrepreneurial attitude.
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