It was Swift's cousin, a lobster fisherman, who three years ago jokingly asked him if he could invent a lobster-banding machine. Initially, the focus for the product was the lobster industry. President and CEO Roland Swift describes the MorSwift Pneumatic Rubber Banding Machine as "an alternative to tape and vinyl strap bundling" - an alternative that is also efficient and environmentally friendly. One such small business is the innovative MorSwift Machines Inc. The importance of small and medium-sized businesses is underlined in a March 2006 research document from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, stating that small businesses make up 97 per cent of the province's enterprises. ![]() "Many of the businesses in Yarmouth started because of CBDC, and the majority of them are successful, well-run businesses today." "I think they're the leaders in the rural communities for small to medium businesses," he says. Harris knows the difference CBDCs have made. "Community is everything," says Harris, who lives and works in Yarmouth.įollowing that philosophy, Harris has volunteered hundreds of hours with the association and the Yarmouth CBDC, while serving as president or vice-president of five businesses, including R&D Harris Excavating Limited. The president of the Nova Scotia Association of CBDCs, David Harris, is one such dependable grassroots volunteer. The board of each CBDC - local volunteers, the majority of which are businesspeople - makes loan decisions. CBDCs now are solely responsible for the investment fund, which has increased under their stewardship to $56 million. Since the CBDCs' inception, the federal government has provided $32.2 million in funds, which CBDCs have used to invest more than $188 million in rural businesses. "Local volunteers were entrusted with investment capital, and tasked with making investment decisions." ![]() "CBDCs were set up over 30 years ago and, at that time, the federal government recognized that local people should make the decisions that impact their community," says Brennan Gillis, executive director of the Nova Scotia Association of Community Business Development Corporations. Nova Scotia CBDCs are part of a cross-Canada network of community development corporations. On the mainland, CBDCs receive operating support from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency on Cape Breton it comes from the Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation. Nova Scotia's CBDCs are independent, non-profit organizations that cover the province from Yarmouth to Sydney Mines. The result is increased opportunity to combine business innovation with Nova Scotia's enviable lifestyle. ![]() The province's 13 Community Business Development Corporations (CBDCs) support rural business growth with loans of up to $150,000, as well as programming and counselling. Community Business Development Corporations help small and medium-size businesses in rural Nova Scotia cultivate big successes.
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