Ottawa Coalition of Business Improvement Areas
Vision, Mission, and Values | Who We Are | Governance | By the Numbers
The Ottawa Coalition of Business Improvement Areas (OCOBIA) is a member-driven non-profit that represents 18 rural, suburban, and urban Ottawa Business Improvement Areas (BIAs), their 10,000 commercial property and business owner members, and the communities that live, work, and play on their main streets.
Vision
A welcoming and safe Ottawa built around strong, vibrant, and livable main streets where residents can live, work, and grow a business.
Mission
OCOBIA works to advocate for the business improvement area model with local, provincial, and federal stakeholders, serves as a resource to its member BIAs in developing hyper-local economies, and partners with collaborators in support of main street businesses across rural, suburban, and urban Ottawa.
Values
Collaborative • Transparent • Innovative
Who We Are
- Contribute to the discussions surrounding policy and legislative issues facing BIAs at the federal and provincial level including changes to the Municipal Act.
- Develop a strong advocacy voice regarding the role, responsibilities, and impacts of BIAs in the lead up to the 2026 municipal election.
- Support the BIA formation and expansion processes to leverage the economic development model in support of communities across the city.
- Provide a diverse schedule of accessible, regional, and strategically focused membership networking, education, and collaboration opportunities.
- Leverage opportunities across key vendor relationships and as a membership value proposition with tangible benefits to members.
- Create and curate a robust collection of communications products that provide membership value, key updates, and access to impactful information.
- Explore partnerships with like-minded economic development agencies that focus on the health of main street brick-and-mortar businesses.
- Pursue funding opportunities that support added capacity for OCOBIA, member BIAs, and their member businesses.
- Present a unified voice of the BIAs model of economic development at City Hall, key economic development events, and in member communities.
