John Martin

Mayor Bob Chiarelli inaugurated the newly renovated Entrepreneurship Centre at Ottawa City Hall on Tuesday.

The mayor, along with John Martin and Stephen Daze, cut the ribbon at a morning ceremony.

Martin is manager of entrepreneurship for the Ontario Ministry of Enterprise, Opportunity, Innovation, while Daze is executive director of the centre.

The centre is a community resource for small businesses and startups. It provides consulting services on business plans, strategies and regulatory issues.

Over the past couple of months the same area, 2,500 square feet, was redesigned to accommodate a new training room for large groups, as well as provide additional board room space for one on one consultations and seminars. The renovation also allows the centre's nine staff to finally come together in the same office.

Chiarelli addressed an audience of about 75, praising the work of the centre for contributing to the region's job creation over the past 18 months.

According to Statistics Canada, about 9,000 new jobs were added to the local economy last year, as strength in the public service, as well as the construction and retail sectors, mitigated persistent weakness in the tech sector.

Funding for the centre comes from the City of Ottawa, the Ministry of Enterprise, Opportunity, Innovation, and the Royal Bank. Law firm Nelligan, O'Brien, Payne has also joined up as a new sponsor.

"As a business community we're on a roll and that comes from the leadership that's on the ground," Chiarelli said. "One of the right strategic moves is to fund and expand the Entrepreneurship Centre."

Among the speakers on hand for the reopening was Peter Andrews, CEO of local information gathering firm In-Touch Survey Systems Inc.

Andrews credited the assistance he received from the centre over the past nine years for helping him to go from eight staff in 1994 to the current headcount of 30.

In-Touch, which now boasts a strong U.S. client base, went public a year ago.

by Ellen Tsaprailis