With the hope that its darkest years are done, Brantford is hoping to transform itself by boosting education to push the new economy forward.

Brantford city councillor Dan McCreary says "The university is central in that. Without the university, I don't know where the heck we'd be."

The city is following the model of communities like Kitchener-Waterloo in this process, looking to the younger population and higher education as the way forward.

According to Brantford city councillor David Neumann, "They had two universities and a full-fledged community college. Brantford had a very small presence of post secondary, and universities really help position a community to attract investment."

Laurier Brantford, which is associated with Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, has expanded from 39 students in 1999 to 2,700 now.

Dr. Lesley Cooper, vice-president of Laurier Brantford, says the school's partnership with the city is creating a more livable community.

"Our library is jointly provided by the Brantford Public Library and we share our constable office with the Brantford city beat. They're just two small examples of how we work together."

The university will continue to help transform the city's downtown core with a new athletic complex set for construction on Colborne Street, in partnership with the YMCA.

In addition to the university's support, 21 companies either opened or expanded in 2011, creating nearly 350 jobs. That's the most the city's seen in 15 years.

While Bell Canada will soon be setting up a call centre downtown creating 500 jobs, Brantford Mayor Chris Friel says the future is in small- and medium-size businesses.

"They have a tendency to grow. They grow with the community, very successfully. And they don't have a tendency to lay off their skilled employees during recessions. They try to find ways of holding them."

Casey's Welding, owned by John Whitney, continues to see growth.

"The volume of work coming in, the size of the jobs coming in, the variety of jobs coming in, only seems to be increasing," Whitney says.

That's not to say that operating in Brantford doesn't still come with challenges.

Whitney says his tax rate has jumped from $1.48 per square foot to $2.17 per square foot since the business moved from Brant County into the city.

Friel says they are looking at ways to reduce business taxes, "We like to get rid of the red tape and roll out the red carpet, which is what we try to do with every business that comes here."

That's something the Brantford Brant Chamber of Commerce would like to see happen.

Chamber president Cathy Oden says "We've been successful with both the city and the county in being able to work hard at reducing taxes and getting them more in line with what we see is fit in the area."

The way forward, according to Friel, is to keep working with the different players in the community.

"If we become independent, view ourselves that way, we live within our means, and we start to focus ourselves around being a 21st century city, we will only succeed."