1. A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE
BECOME A FIRST First Impressions
Communities that have participated in a First
IMPRESSIONS COMMUNITY Community Exchange Program
Impressions Community Exchange (FICE) are
“Seeing things in a whole new light”
quick to praise the program. Apart from the
relatively low cost and effort involved, FICE of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food
has led to concrete results, such as improved and Rural Affairs or the Ministry of
signage, better visitor services, uncluttered Northern Development and Mines.
streets, upgraded lighting or investment
We will provide all the materials,
in comprehensive downtown revitalization.
staff to guide the process, and
undertake more strategic projects and have
often developed longer-term, collaborative community.
relationships with other FICE communities.
“I have set many new goals and
report. Many of these initiatives will
come into play for the next couple of
budget years.”
Quote courtesy of client survey
Contact the Ontario FICE Program
1-888-588-4111
Email: reddi.omafra@ontario.ca
1-800-461-6132
www.ontario.ca/reddi
Également disponible en français

2. A Fresh Perspective
What is the First Impressions Three versions of FICE are now available:
Community Exchange? Community-wide, Downtown and Tourism. Each Since 2005, the FICE program
program provides communities with guides, has contributed across Ontario to
FICE is a simple, low-cost and highly effective assessment booklets, report templates and
assistance from provincial government economic
positive community action, including
community conveys to visitors, including tourists, development consultants. downtown revitalization, tourism
potential investors or people looking for a new development, investment attraction,
place to live. It helps communities identify the The ‘exchange’ involves two or more communities quality service improvement, and
that send volunteer teams to their exchange community strategic planning.
bring them back, as well as the things that give a community to complete an assessment of local
negative impression of the community. facilities, services and amenities. The visits
are unannounced, similar to a secret shopper
approach used to assess retail stores. The
“Since I am on the Business Improvement visitors record their observations and give
constructive feedback to the community through
Association and a tourism partner in
a public presentation and report.
the community, I have used some of the
information to speak to the municipality’s
MATCHING COMMUNITIES
public works department to try and get The best results are achieved when the exchange
improvements made.” communities have similar characteristics, such
as population size, proximity to a large urban
Quote courtesy of client survey centre, or economic base (eg. agriculture,
tourism, manufacturing). It also helps if the two
communities are facing similar development “It has connected us to another
issues, like business or youth retention, single
industry dependence, or “big-box” development. town that we can partner with in
any ways. Example, when we have
events going on they can promote
THE VISIT
Each visiting team has 5-6 community residents [them] and give us prizes that will
with a mix of backgrounds, occupations and help get people to visit their town
ages. They spend several hours touring the and vice versa.”
community and recording their observations.
They prepare a report and present it to the
Quote courtesy of client survey
exchange community at a public session.