All County, All the Time Since 2010 MAKE THIS YOUR PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY HOME...PAGE!  Tuesday, February 18th, 2025

Council seeks community improvement plan, childcare, with economic development

By Sharon Harrison
The County’s five-year economic development action plan vision is to support a sustainable, diverse and year-round economy that values the natural assets, celebrates the heritage and supports a caring community.

Economic development officer Karen Palmer presented the five year (2025-2030) draft plan to council at Thursday’s committee of the whole meeting, which is to be a living document, and is intended as a roadmap for directing the work of municipal staff.

In her report, Palmer explained the action plan outlines how the County’s economy can grow, diversify and build community wealth, something she said could be achieved by encouraging diversification within and between existing sectors.

“Prince Edward County is enterprising, environmentally-minded and community-focused; it’s a place of agriculture, artistry, heritage and unmatched natural attributes.”

She indicated that by laying the foundation, the County will be ready to attract new residents and economic opportunities, as housing developments evolve.

While endorsing the report, council also directed staff to develop a community improvement plan (CIP) to include a proposal for a sustainable funding model, eligibility criteria and application and adjudication process for any programs related to the CIP.

As part of the action plan, council also voted to direct staff to bring forward terms of reference, proposed membership, and proposed milestones for a childcare task team, in the first quarter of 2025.

Outlining how the County’s economy relies heavily on healthcare, professional services and hospitality to provide jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities, Palmer pointed to steady growth (including the number of businesses and jobs) within the local economy.

However, she did note “significant vulnerability” and “stubborn stagnation” preventing the County’s expansion to a true four-season economy.

“The goal is to build programs and partnerships that create the conditions for success and strategically prepare for growth, so that the County can remain a vibrant and engaging place to live, work and thrive,” she explained.

Such growth may include a mid-range hotel attraction, if the intent is to move into a four-season economy, to attract sports tourism, for example, she said.

“In Prince Edward County, agriculture, hospitality and skilled trades are economic drivers. Vibrant downtowns are essential to success, and access to professional services is key. As a result, this plan focuses on these sectors.”

The action plan is grouped into six themes, to include a community improvement plan; sustainable agriculture; supporting small business; workforce development; expanding opportunities and closing gaps; and communications and collaboration.

Of the six pillars of focus, a community improvement plan (CIP) is a tool municipalities can use to stimulate downtown revitalization, address growth management challenges, energy efficiency, mixed-use and transit development, accessibility, and emerging community needs.

Support and programming toward the agricultural and agri-tourism sectors under the theme “sustainable agriculture” is recommend, given the importance of County agriculture, as well as threats the sector faces through climate change, globalization, tariffs on trade and increased industrialization and mechanization of farming.

“This would support diversifying agricultural revenues and spread the benefits of tourism amongst a wider population.“

Speaking to sustainable agriculture, councillor (and farmer) Sam Branderhorst said she understood the desire to want to expand agricultural practices, but noted that a lot of agricultural communities didn’t like the idea, but not because they didn’t want the growth (something she said came up at the recent ROMA conference).

“But because specifically, agriculture and farm practices, it’s like, we want you to grow, but we keep putting planning files on agricultural land and which screws up MDS (minimum distance separation) standards, and we then have the issues of bylaw and other things coming to people who are trying to expand their agricultural practices dealing with neighbours that are now saying that you are ruining my quality of life.”

She said, it is a very large question.

“Until we start figuring out these MDS standards that are punishing farmers by isolating them into very narrow situations that they don’t have that opportunity to expand; they don’t have that growth capacity, and they keep getting pressured to lose their land,” continued Branderhorst. “And I will say, to every building that is built on farmland that also takes the farmer to sell it.”

The third pillar “supporting small business” will see the creation of a ‘Made in the County’ brand and certification program, as well as the development of incubator programming to support new agri-food entrepreneurs at the County Food Hub, and to pilot a farm tour and develop a map of farmstands.

“Small businesses are the backbone of the local economy,” she added, noting about 75 per cent of County’s businesses are small businesses.

A more focused and results-oriented approach to growing childcare options in the community falls under the banner, “expanding opportunities and closing gaps”.

“While childcare remains a provincial responsibility, its impact on the community (with more than 400 children on the waitlist for licensed care) is clear,” she said. “A time-bound task team, involving parents, childcare providers, members of council, municipal staff and others may help accelerate potential solutions to a barrier that is challenging parents’ full participation in the workforce.”

Councillor Brad Nieman noted that in Paris, any new development in sub-divisions have commercial blocks that include childcare.

“One building has to be childcare, and that means we have to have buy-in from planning department here; the planning department has to start pushing for commercial blocks in any new sub-division,” said Nieman. “We have to have the spaces for childcare and we have to have an operator for that too, so how do we get sub-divisions to comply with that?”

Recognizing that Prince Edward County does not yet have the housing and infrastructure in place to attract larger industry, the report outlines how the plan focuses first on building resiliency within the sectors already in place, before transitioning to attraction of related employers and industries once housing development catches up with the demand.

“The problem we have is that we have people here who need those jobs now,” said Nieman. “They are having a hard time making ends meet, and they are working two, three, four part-time jobs just to get the full-time wage they need”.

Palmer said at this moment, she didn’t think the County was competitive enough.

“We are still a little bit away from having [County Road] 49 funding secured, a couple of MZOs, that once they are resolved, we will have a much better sense of what we could be proposing to a factory or others,” said Palmer. ”And we also have to be realistic about what our state of water is.”

Councillor Janice Maynard spoke to small versus big commercial development, noting how the report only refers to the urban centres of Picton, Wellington and Rossmore, where she said that the County needs to look beyond those three downtown cores to really grow the economy in a sustainable way.

“This community was built on those small villages and hamlets (like Cherry Valley, Bloomfield, Consecon, Carrying Place), they all had some sort of a commercial core,” said Maynard. “As we spread the wealth and keep the congestion out of some that is a very important consideration. “We are going to have to go back to a more self-sustaining insular economy,” she added.

There was also some talk around developing the north end of the County.

Speaking to the increasing the employment lens, councillor Phil St-Jean, said, “it should not be centred around the urban centres as they are too far away from everything”, where he asked about development lands in the north end of the County closer to the main corridors of rail and 401.

“We need to be creative, and instead of pining for the past, we need to be pro-active and identify what our shortcomings are, and also planning for the future.”

The idea for the economic development action plan came about as a result of economic recovery strategy from COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, with a renewed focus on the County’s economic development.

A series of funded consultations and interviews with business operators and others (including youth) was undertaken which provided a better understanding of how business owners, decision-makers and community members see economic success, along with the barriers, needs and possibilities.

“Throughout this process, staff heard that a thriving, 12-month economy that protected the natural beauty, agricultural heritage and unique, art-forward feel of Prince Edward County was the ideal,” said Palmer. “A lack of housing, unclear direction, insufficient communication and outreach, abundant red tape and NIMBYism (not in my back yard) were identified as the main challenges needing to be overcome.”

Palmer further explained that participants in the consultation process saw the municipality’s economic development role as one of advocating for building up infrastructure (parking, electric vehicle chargers, transit, broadband, roads and water) that would make it easier to run their businesses and serve customers.

“At several focus groups, staff heard that business operators wanted more access to municipal staff and councillors, and more (and clearer) communication about plans and priorities and their potential impact on their operations.”

The full draft economic development action plan can be found on the County’s website.

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