Incentives pay dividends for Smooth Rock Falls: New residents, businesses arriving in town.

• Date: 01 January 2019

Luc Denault is seeing a lot more new faces in Smooth Rock Falls these days, which is bringing a smile to his.

A year ago, when the community, located just north of Timmins, announced a suite of incentives designed to entice new residents to town, nobody really knew what the response would be.

Denault, the town's CAO and economic development director, was hopeful, but he hadn't expected the thousands of inquiries that arrived from across Canada, resulting in new families moving in, a flurry of real estate sales, and the promise of new business.

"We were quite ecstatic once we had time to sit down and review and assess the outcome one year later," Denault said. "We're certainly surprised but pleased with the results."

Included in that plan were incentives such as land packages for 90 per cent below market value, some as cheap as $500; generous tax breaks for homeowners over three years; grants for business owners of up to 15 per cent of eligible costs; loan guarantees for construction projects for up to 50 per cent of construction costs; and a tax increment grant program for businesses.

The...