Tomorrow, September 30, film crews return to Almonte’s Mill Street to shoot scenes for a new Hallmark-style movie, “Jingle Bells, Wedding Bells.” This is nothing new for our next-door neighbour. Mississippi Mills has hosted close to a dozen film and TV productions in recent years, earning it an informal reputation as Ontario’s “Christmas Capital.”
It is easy to enjoy the charm and miss the machinery behind it. When a production wants to film in Mississippi Mills, they do not call the clerk’s office or the planning department. They call the municipality’s Economic Development Department. That is not an accident. It reflects a deliberate choice to treat these opportunities as real economic activity, worth coordinating, rather than just another application form to process.
The economic impact of any single shoot is modest. It might mean a few days of location fees, hiring local extras, buying supplies, renting equipment, or hiring services. Cast and crew spend money at local businesses while they are in town. These small boosts add up when they happen again and again, year after year, and they come with almost none of the usual costs of economic development. There is no rezoning, no new infrastructure to build, and no tax incentives to offer. There is no environmental footprint to worry about. It is low-impact, low-risk economic activity that also markets the township for free, every time a film airs.
Lanark Highlands has the same raw materials that municipalities like Mississippi Mills trade on. We have heritage buildings, scenic waterways, expansive vistas, and a genuine small-town, rural character that draws people in. What we don’t have is anyone whose job it is to notice these opportunities, let alone pursue or market them. If a production company called the township office tomorrow, there is no obvious department for them to reach, and no clear person who could say yes and make it happen.
That is the kind of gap I want to close. Economic development does not have to mean chasing big industry or investing in risky spending. Sometimes it simply means building the basic structure needed to say Yes. It means being ready for the small, low-impact opportunities already knocking on our door, and having the infrastructure ready to answer that door when they do.
This is not just about movies. Importantly, the same office that would welcome a film crew could also chase small grants, help a local business expand, or connect an entrepreneur to the resources they need. Right now, those jobs fall to whichever staff member has time between other duties, if they fall to anyone at all. Other municipalities our size have already made this investment, and they are seeing it pay off.
Almonte/Mississippi Mills figured this out. It is time Lanark Highlands did too.