What is a Business Improvement Area?

A Business Improvement Area is a geographic area in a municipality. A BIA board of management is an organization set up to provide certain business promotion and improvement functions within that area.

A BIA allows local business people and property owners to join together and with the support of the municipality, to organize, finance and carry out physical improvement and promote economic development in their district. The local municipality is the body that is responsible for approving the budget of the BIA.

There are now more than 230 BIA's in place across the province. They vary in size from less than 60 businesses and property owners to more than 2,000.

Why both a "Merchants Association" and a "BIA"?

St. Marys is probably unique in its decision to carry on a Merchants Association even after a BIA was established in 1979. Most BIA's simply appoint a promotion committee for special events and other promotions. In St. Marys, it was felt the established Merchants Association could handle that role.  So far that idea has worked reasonably well.

Rather than the BIA earmarking an amount for promotions, and writing a cheque for each promotion, a separate Merchants Association bank account is self-administered by the merchants themselves -- the funds for which are provided through the St. Marys BIA.

Looking west along Queen St. E., St. Marys, Ontario