City of Dieppe Does Economic Development Like a Boss
DIEPPE–Over the last few years, residents and business people alike have seen the city of Dieppe grow at an overwhelming pace into a bustling hub of industry, retail and culture.
According to the 2011 Statistics Canada census, among New Brunswick municipalities with a population above 5,000 people, Dieppe had the highest population growth, growing at a rate of 25.6 per cent since 2006.
Expansion Dieppe executive director Louis Godbout says he enjoys getting the opportunity to give tours of the city to people who haven’t been there for ten or fifteen years and have a hard time recognizing where they are because so much has changed.
Expansion Dieppe concentrates its efforts on working with local entrepreneurs and businesses already in the area to help expand or create something new.
“One of our main responsibilities is to ensure that the business people who want to settle into our community have land to be able to do that,” Godbout said.
“We have had a very strong demographic growth over the last 20 years that, like everywhere else, has been slowing down. But luckily because of plans that were made by predecessors of ours, we are now benefitting from some major commercial industrial development.”
Godbout says much of the growth of the area is thanks to their strategic location.
“We’re situated right along highways 2 and 15, which are some of the busiest segments of highway in the province … it is quite a strategic location not only for our region here but the whole of the Maritimes,” Godbout said.
Godbout also credits in part the location of the Greater Moncton International Airport for the industrial development happening on that end of the city as well as the retail draw of CF Champlain Mall for attracting visitors and residents to the city.
“All that combined with a population and a city that actually in practice and in theory functions in both languages, that’s interesting also for some of our attraction for citizens, and the growth in demographic we’ve had over the last 20 years,” Godbout said.
Chris Bacich is chair of the board of directors of the Greater Moncton International Airport and general manager and partner at BMW/MINI Moncton nearby in Dieppe. Bacich says Dieppe is an ideal location to serve a market larger than the Greater Moncton area.
“I’ve been there for many years so I’ve seen it really transform,” Bacich said. “I hope the area continues to grow and prosper. I hope that the investments are made in the infrastructure required to bring new businesses to the area.”
Godbout says the creation of Place 1604 and the Dieppe Market, the construction of six office buildings around the city core and the expansion of the industrial park have been some of the biggest changes to Dieppe in recent years.
“Last year the city did a survey on what the citizens of Dieppe, what their impression was of their city and the results were phenomenal,” Godbout said. “They are proud of how it has grown, the infrastructure the city has been able to maintain and add … this is a great place to raise a family.”