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Season’s Greetings from your OACFDC Staff
Diana Jedig, Executive Director
Denise Kozachuk, Executive Assistant
Mary Alderson, Member Services Coordinator
Crystal Calver, Website Coordinator & Office Assistant
Laura Rey, Website Developer & Technician
Spotted in the village of
Mt. Brydges last week:
Santa arrives, not with 8 tiny reindeer, but 8 tiny John Deere, and Rudolph, the little red tractor, leading the way.
The OACFDC is working together with Contact North to offer more options for professional development. Contact North offers access to thousands of online courses. They have offices across Ontario, with trainers available to assist students, either in person, online or by phone, in all areas served by CFDCs. Staff at Contact North will be able to assist managers, staff and board members, as well as CFDC clients, with course selections.
On the OACFDC Website
A Professional Development section will be set up on the OACFDC website which will include three sections:
- Online Learning for Small Business
- Professional Development for CFDC Staff and Board
- Webinar Library for CFDCs
Lending Courses
Please note that we will continue to offer the courses provided by Omega, originally endorsed by the BDC. At present, courses available are: Business Lending Fundamentals, Financial Accounting for Lenders, Commercial Loans to Small Businesses and a newer course, Essentials of Business Lending (Canadian Version, available in French and English). Essentials of Business Lending replaces Financial Accounting for Lenders and Commercial Loans to Small Business, which will be phased out.
Community Futures Leadership Institute
We will also continue our partnership with Community Futures Pan West, offering the online certification program for staff. Online assessments for General Managers, Business Analysts, Community Economic Development Officers and Administrative Coordinators are available, where students conduct a self-assessment of shared competencies as well as skills specific to each position. For Staff Certification go to http://cfleadershipinstitute.ca/sd/login.php?accesscheck=%2Fsd%2Findex.php
Modules for Board Training are also available, both in workshop format and video conferencing. To learn more about Board Training courses, go to
http://cfleadershipinstitute.ca/bd/start-cbdc.php
To Learn Online/Apprendre en ligne
The website To Learn Online and Apprendre en ligne will no longer be available after January 31, 2015. No new course registrations are being accepted, and those who are taking courses will have until the end of January to complete them.
Congratulations to Gord Knowles who has received basic certification from the Community Futures Leadership Institute as both a Business Analyst and Community Economic Development Coordinator. Gord is the Community Development Advisor and wears many hats at the Atikokan Economic Development Corporation. Gord is the first CFDC member to become certified in two positions.
The results of the 2013 salary survey are posted at www.oacfdc.com now. Please log in to the OACFDC section and then click on “Salary and Benefits for CFDC Staff” under Benefits of Membership on the left side. We apologize for the delay in getting the information posted: there were difficulties in collecting the information from the old website before it was shut down, then we had to re-do the survey, and add all the data together. In merging the data we realized that some CFDCs were duplicated, so percentages have been recalculated accordingly.
Please note that across the province 43 out of 57 member CFDCs or 75% took part in the survey.
(It does not include non-members and freestanding members). In the North, 19 out of 24 or 79% took part, and 18 of the 19 participating CFDCs responded to the question on the General Manager salary. In the South, 24 out of 33 or 72% took part, and 20 of the 24 participating CFDCs responded to the question on the General Manager salary.
Get ready – we will be circulating the 2014 salary questionnaire in early March, just after T-4s are prepared.
The OACFDC Board representatives attended a demonstration of the Fern Software on Dec 5th; the session included step-by-step loan and project management scenarios which reflected the input of CFDCs and an understanding of the need for an intuitive process flow when using the software.
TEA 10 will remain in use in Northern CFDCs until March 2015.
VisionQuest Inc. has been sold to Bulletproof Solutions Inc.: Derek MacEwen will continue on with VQ for one year during the transition with no change in the Managed IT services currently being provided to CFDCs
Fern Software are very pleased to announce the addition of Adam Stirtan to their team in Toronto. Adam will be taking on the role of lead developer on the FaaSBank project, and will be focused on ensuring the software meets the needs of the Ontario CFDC client base. Adam is a native of Burlington, Ontario, and brings to Fern a wealth of software development and database experience from his previous roles are RBC Capital Markets and Geotab, the industry leader in GPS fleet management software. Adam is very enthusiastic about the FaaSBank project, and is looking forward to working alongside CFDC personnel to provide a software package that is both user-friendly and powerful.
The latest version of the FaaSBank software was released on December 11. We will be holding two webinars to cover the update's new functionality:
• Thursday 18th December 2014, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (EST)
• Tuesday 6th January 2015, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (EST)
To register for a session, please click here. We very much look forward to chatting with you. If you have any questions or would you like any further info on the webinars please contact Kyle at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Season's Greetings!
For those CFDCs using the services of Equifax credit checks through the OACFDC affinity plan, please be aware that there have been some changes. To find the new rates and the member number to be a part of the plan, go to www.oacfdc.com, click on OACFDC, log in, click on Benefits of Membership on the left side → Member Services → Affinity Plans.
Does your CFDC get enough positive publicity? If not, take advantage of the toolkit and ideas provided by Brown & Cohen Communications and Public Affairs. If you didn’t take part in the live webinars, please set aside 2 hours each to listen to the two webinars. Go to www.oacfdc.com, click OACFDC and log in, then look for Communications Resources on the left side and click PR Initiatives. The first webinar is Government and Media Relations and the second is on Social Media. There are various documents and templates in the Toolkits to assist you in following through on the advice given in the webinars. (These PowerPoints and Toolkits will be available in French very soon.)
No time for a two hour webinar? (First we suggest you really try to make time, but if it’s impossible, look at the PowerPoints posted there, which were used in the webinars.)
Once you have viewed the webinars, please go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PRInitiative and complete the online survey. We need your input for the next steps.
Discussions are now underway with Regional Networks for ongoing assistance from Brown & Cohen for additional workshop or webinar training as well as social media content development and scheduling. “Decals” for local promotion projects will be purchased and distributed by OACFDC.
Casino Rama near Orillia will host the OACFDC’s 22nd annual conference September 14 – 16, 2015, so set that time aside now!
For your budgeting process, please take note of these figures: Registration fee $275; Meals $200: Hotel $130/night for 2 nights = Total $735 plus travel
Workshop and plenary session suggestions are welcome. Watch for the workshop requests for proposals to come in the new year.
Provincial CF Associations’ Executive Directors are recommending a Board Governance structure – change to a 9 person Board made up of 2 from each region (West, Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic) and 1 from Northern Canada
The priorities of the CF Network are to be focused on:
- Representation to Government/Stakeholders Relations
- Organization of a National Event – every 3 years
- Sharing of Best Practices
The CF National Event will be held June 3 – 5, 2015 in Charlevoix, Quebec. For more information go to www.communityfuturescanada.ca
The OACFDC is looking for at least 3 CFDC clients to provide unique products for the Marché evening. Please contact Diana at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with suggestions. We are also compiling an Ontario success stories video to showcase CFDC clients.
For your budgeting process: Registration fee $500 includes transportation from airport to Charlevoix; 2 dinners on your own ~ $85; Hotel average cost is $130/night for 3 nights = Total $975 plus travel to Quebec City.
Lawyer Theresa Man (who spoke on the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act at the Sarnia Conference) has offered the following update:
Please note that the proclamation of the ONCA is yet again delayed as a result of the election in May 2014. The ONCA was originally schedule to be proclaimed in July 2013. It was delayed as a result of the introduction of Bill 85 in June 2013, which proposed to amend a few provisions in the ONCA. Bill 85 amending portions of the ONCA died on the Order Paper as a result of the calling of the provincial election on May 2, 2014. The government had previously indicated that the ONCA would not be proclaimed until at least 6 months after the enactment of Bill 85 in order to allow Part III Corporations Act not-for-profit corporations to prepare for the transition. All transitions must be completed within three years of proclamation. At this time, we are waiting for a new bill to be re-introduced.
The Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services’ website indicates that the ONCA is not expected to come into force before 2016. With the Ontario Liberal Party, which originally introduced the ONCA, winning the election, many in the sector are cautiously hopeful that there might be an earlier proclamation date. In this regard, it is encouraging to learn that in Premier Wynne’s September 25, 2014 “Mandate Letter” to Minister Orazietti, two of the key priorities for the Ministry for 2014 are continuing to review the province’s corporate and commercial statutes to ensure “Ontario has modern laws that facilitate an efficient market and prosperous business climate” and to bring forward legislation to enable the implementation of the ONCA.
OACFDC members (or charities or churches) are invited to keep current by signing up to receive Ms. Man’s law firm’s monthly newsletter at http://www.carters.ca/index.php?page_id=109
Applications for funding to hire a student through Canada Summer Jobs must be completed by January 30, 2015. The online application as well as the Applicant Guide is available on the Service Canadawebsite. Service Canada will inform employers of the status of their application in April 2015. For more information: Click www.servicecanada.gc.ca; Call 1-800-935-5555 (ATS: 1-800-926-9105); or Visit a Service Canada office
For CFDCs interested in hiring a bilingual student, applications for Young Canada Works in Both Official Languages must be completed by February 2, 2015. Please apply online at www.youngcanadaworks.gc.ca. Click here for any advice and help: The program guidelines;
More information here; or check the list of Delivery Organizations; and Preparing an Application.
Our members continue to post positions on our website. Be sure to check our Classified ads at www.oacfdc.com on a regular basis.
The board will meet by teleconference Thursday, December 18th to approve 2015-2016 business plan; following that the next teleconference meeting will be Wednesday, February 4, 2015.
Keep an eye on the Calendar of Events at www.oacfdc.com to see what seminars and workshops are coming up, and also what your colleagues at other CFDCs are doing. Once you are logged in to the OACFDC website, you can post your own events, and the location will be pin-pointed on Google maps.
The Small Business Branch of Industry Canada would like to inform you of the on-line release of the financing research report titled Canada Small Business Financing Program: Updated and Extended Economic Impact Analysis. This report examines the extent to which participation in the Canada Small Business Financing Program (CSBFP) impacts areas such as growth in revenue, employment, profits, salary, labour productivity, firm viability and investment in R&D. The report also compares the performance of CSBFP borrowers to the small and medium-sized population as a whole, as well as to denied borrowers.
The report can be found on-line at the following address: http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/061.nsf/eng/h_02899.html
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