The CLD de La Côte-de-Gaspé is a not-for-profit corporation managed by members of the community under the authority of a board of directors that represents area municipalities, the business community and social economy agencies.

The members of the CLD board of directors are leaders in your community elected for their thorough knowledge of the needs of the milieu and their encompassing vision of local development. Their spirit of cooperation makes them your most assured allies in helping you to successfully accomplish your business project. The MNA and local employment centre (Centre local d`Emploi) are also represented on the board of directors in an advisory capacity.

Adapted to community needs
By offering you a variety of services, your CLD goes beyond the "blanket" services traditionally offered to businesses and promoters of economic projects. Rather, it proposes a model adapted to the specific circumstances and needs of the community.

Moreover, when you contact your CLD, you are dealing with local people who are able to better assess your project's possibilities. In short, the CLD helps to speed up and simplify the accomplishment of job-creating initiatives.

Our mandates
The Centre local de développement de La Côte-de-Gaspé has been mandated to:

• bring together and coordinate entrepreneurship assistance services and ensure these services of funding;
  
• draw up a local economic and employment action plan in keeping with, notably, the strategic plan established by the area`s regional conference of elected officials (Conférence régionale des élus);
  
• draw up an entrepreneurship development strategy, that also provides for social economy entrepreneurship, in keeping with national and regional orientations, strategies and objectives; and
  
• serve as an advisory committee in support of the area`s local employment centre (Centre local d'emploi).

A gold mine of services
The CLD de La Côte-de-Gaspé offers significant technical and financial support through a range of first-line services to help you start up, consolidate and develop your business project. These services include, notably:

• consultation, orientation and referral activities;
  
• assistance in preparing business plans;
  
• funding research;
  
• financial assistance for businesses;
  
• support and monitoring for your business; and
  
• referral to specialised services, notably with respect to exporting and technological development or to services provided by agencies such as regional development cooperatives.

To fulfill its mandates, the CLD uses an integrated budget funded jointly by the provincial government and the five municipalities in the MRC de La Côte-de-Gaspé: Grande-Vallée, Petite-Vallée, Cloridorme, Gaspé and Murdochville. In addition to ensuring CLD operations, this budget serves to finance three specific areas of endeavour:

• a local investment fund–a fund that is used to assist businesses;
  
• development of social economy businesses; and
  
• support for the start-up of businesses by young people.

Strong local partnerships
n assuming a central role in your region's economic activity, the CLD encourages the dynamic players in the community to take charge of its development, bringing into play a new way for State and community to share decisional power.

Contact information
The CLD de La Côte-de-Gaspé office is located at 19 Rue Adams, Suite 208, in Gaspé. To reach us, you can also call (418) 368-7000 (1 866 368-7100 for callers from outside the area), send a fax to (418) 368-8181 or e-mail us at cldgaspe@cotedegaspe.com