“Prox-Commerce is in a pre-startup phase,” says Patrick-Claude Caron, Chairman of the Prox-Commerce Committee and Board member of the CCILaval. Contact with local businesses in the three new targeted areas, Sainte-Rose, Sainte-Dorothée, and St. Vincent de Paul, will begin in March. From the end of the month, virtual focus groups will be organized to connect members and determine their priorities. “We want to listen to them and offer them field support,” says Caroline de Guire, CEO of CCILaval.

Creating a community of proximity
One of the difficulties in pandemic times is that everyone is focused on their problems, notes Caron. “The CCILaval wants to structure a group of merchants to give them a platform and implement change,” he shares. All local businesses in the targeted sectors are invited to join Prox-Commerce. “Restaurants, which are particularly affected by the pandemic and play a natural attraction role in a neighbourhood, are of course invited to participate in the project,” says Caron. Prox-Commerce would work in conjunction with other local initiatives, such as merchant groups or industry associations, stresses de Guire.

Developing synergies between neighbours
The primary objective of Prox-Commerce is to help its members get to know each other better. The idea is to develop mutual aid through their experiences and their respective networks and enable them to do business with each other. “Local businesses have complementary needs, and there the first market is between them,” says Caron. The canvassing of local suppliers is an inspiring example of these new collaborations between merchants. When it opens on Boulevard de la Concorde in the spring, Laval’s first bulk grocery store, Alterrenative, will offer several local products, such as Kombuchas from Kombuchsima, as well as tofu and soy milk from Soya Distinction. In the future, why not imagine an incentive plan offering discounts to merchants in the sector or the common development of a virtual online trading structure?

Accompanying the profound transformation of retail
Local traders will be invited to speak in the coming weeks on pandemic issues, barriers to recovery, and training needs. Frédéric Bourdon, co-owner of Colobar, was heavily involved in the Prox-Commerce committee on Boulevard des Laurentides, which played the role of a pilot project. He is convinced that the revitalization of a neighborhood requires analyzing its current commercial reality and identifying its potential. “To develop well-articulated neighbourhoods, you need to have a specific study, specific to each commercial sector, to understand who you are, where you come from, and where you want to go,” he says. He welcomes the fact that the CCILaval is supporting the revitalization of each sector by collecting demographic, geographic, and economic metrics. “Once we get the results and the pandemic behind us, we can raise the merchants, get some animation and keep our community alive,» says Bourdon.