Economic plan tackles’ County’s struggles, strengths and vision
Administrator | Dec 10, 2024 | Comments 0
By Sharon Harrison
The economic development of the County, its struggles and strengths, as well as the vision going forward, was shared by Karen Palmer, the County’s economic development officer during a presentation Monday to the Agricultural Advisory Committee.
Several months in the works, the proposed economic development action plan noted the main economic development community priorities as affordability, economic diversity, sustainable tourism, climate protection, arts and culture heritage, and community connections. Going forward, the action plan is expected to be updated annually.
Palmer spoke to building community wealth, resilience and growth through economic development where she shared details of the plan and 10-year community vision covering economic development priorities, an economic vision, economic successes and barriers, and economic challenges and opportunities.
She noted information gleaned came through consultation and interviews with numerous sources, such as sector experts, councillors, and 10 focus groups touching about 80 operators. Discussions were framed around five key questions surrounding economic success, barriers, capacity building and leveraging opportunities.
Economic success touched on expanding to a 12-month economy.
“Most of the businesses we spoke to feel very strongly about protecting the things that they love and value about the County, so really thinking about the natural environment, the history, the heritage, that sense of neighbourliness and community. I would say they would like to keep that, as opposed to grow at the expense of it,” Palmer said.
Two broad themes revealed in economic barriers were challenges of working with the municipality when it comes to red tape, and also poor communications from the municipality, which Palmer said could be improved.
“We heard a lot from people about how much they would appreciate hearing from us more often in a clearer sort of way, and having a better sense of who they need to talk to when they’ve got an issue.”
Other barrier examples brought up were land prices being a barrier to expansion, NIMBY (not in my back yard), empty storefronts with unaffordable rents, entrepreneurs struggling to navigate the system, a lack of four-season employment, and again, a lack of communication between municipal departments.
Palmer highlighted one comment received: “So much going on. The broader community is just in whiplash and wondering, what’s happening to this place?”
When it comes to removing barriers, Palmer said this had a lot to do with removing or fixing red tape, and making sure there is communication out. “And the community feels they have a voice at the table and are really part of finding solutions, or thinking about how we address issues.”
Research comments received included, “Give us one message that we can understand”; “Everything is a fight. Make it easier to do business in PEC”; and “A critical component of sustainability is quality of life for residents”.
When it comes to economic development in the municipal context, Palmer noted three main things: building capacity (infrastructure and roads, workforce, water/wastewater, transit), removing barriers, and leveraging opportunities.
“Interestingly, people are very much interested in having more residents, but they are not necessarily interested in seeing places spread out; they are more interested in seeing them go up.”
When it comes to leveraging opportunities, she highlighted this comment in particular: “All of our businesses feed each other, but we don’t talk with each other about challenges and opportunities. Something like that would be very good for everybody.”
According to the Palmer, the economic vision for the County is a diverse and year-round economy achieved by emphasizing sustainability, building the conditions for success and strategically preparing for significant growth, helping the community to be a vibrant and engaging place to live, work and thrive.
While good infrastructure and a diversified economy is the focus of the 10-year community vision, it also includes open and effective local government, investing in and protecting the County’s rural character, rising to the challenge of climate change, and a community that cares.
Palmer’s list of challenges the County is facing when it comes to economic development include things like housing, workforce, connectivity, NIMBYism, youth, infrastructure, economic diversity, and a three-season economy, among them.
Speaking to economic strengths, Palmer said there are lots of things she feels excited about as the economic development officer.
“There are lots of things going right in our community,” said Palmer. “I think we’ve got a really engaged population, and the agricultural sector know how tight-knit and how supportive people are of each other and there is a real respect in our community for the agricultural sector.”
She also highlighted the positive aspects of the arts and culture sector, as well as lots happening in healthcare with the new hospital and new long-term care facility, and the results of “strong” physician recruitment have been ”really innovative and really effective”.
When it comes to hospitality, Palmer cited the strong PEC brand and an enviable food and craft beverage scene.
“There are a lot of communities that would love to be in our position with a really strong brand and with lots of things happening that naturally draw folks.”
On the flip side, she acknowledged a few challenges the County is facing.
“We will never be as well connected as some communities, that’s part of our charm is that we are off the beaten path, and we have some infrastructure pieces that probably need to be put into place before we get aggressive about trying to attract anything.”
She also noted the housing challenge, “that will probably be the key to unlocking a bunch of things in our community”.
As well, the County is losing its youth, as well as losing those people in their peak earning years (age 45-55), and maintains a high seniors population. The farming community, and particularly family farms, and their challenges was another point raised in the action plan.
“This summer has illustrated to us just how vulnerable our economy can be that when we see a bit of a dip in one sector, it can have shocks in others, so thinking about that diversity is important in giving us stability.”
She also spoke to the County’s three-season economy and the challenges faced to recruit and retain staff, the cycle of small business burn-out, and the lack of meaningful, year-round work.
The consultations undertaken with youth were the most worrying, Palmer noted, citing lack of attainable housing options, a feeling there’s too much focus on visitors, a perceived lack of opportunities and support, and the high cost of education and training.
“There is a real sense in the community that there is just nothing for them, that they are not going to be able to afford housing here anytime soon, that there aren’t that many opportunities and that education is quite expensive,” she said. “And a lot of them feel quite stunted on that growth into adulthood and independence.”
However, she added there is plenty to be excited about when it came to with economic opportunities.
“We’ve got housing coming in the pipeline, remote work may give us another option of who we can draw into the community, Base31 will make a whole new town out of a place that was really unexpected, and we know there is some good news happening with grain shipping and Picton Terminals, and there may at some point in our future be water and wastewater infrastructure.”
“We are a community that is quite proud of our heritage and has taken steps to protect it, and I think it is a real asset to us going forward.”
Because of so much change happening in the County currently, and also how many projects council is dealing with, for the first few years of the strategy, Palmer indicated they will be leaning into what they have and trying to build resilience in the sectors that already exist.
“When I think about diversity, it is really growing diversity between the sectors and within the sectors, while we get some of those puzzle pieces in place and really make plans for how we think about preparing for growth.”
As a result, she doesn’t anticipate any impact on the 2025 municipal budget as various funding streams are explored, with a similar picture expected in 2026.
She said the action plan can be split into five categories, the first three of which were referred to as “workaday themes” (items being worked on everyday anyway), to include sustainable agriculture, small business support and attraction, and workforce development. The remaining two categories include expanding opportunities and closing gaps, and communications and collaboration.
The plan for 2025 will entail looking at how a community improvement plan (CIP) can be developed, specifically focusing on sustainable agriculture.
Palmer explained that a CIP is basically a tool that a municipality can use to funnel support, funding and other programming towards either an industry or a geographic sector.
“It’s a way to be able to support businesses directly,” she added, saying that she was also “very motivated by the idea of sustainable agriculture in our community knowing there are lots of farmers who are facing tough choices about their future, and a lot of young farmers who are finding it very hard to stay in this”.
The plan also focuses on the winegrowers where Palmer noted that at some point in the future, they will need to have sustainable certification in order to get into the LCBO.
“And knowing that they are facing a huge dip in the number of people who are actually drinking alcohol these days,” she explained. “We have been told by folks who track this stuff that consumers are very interested in knowing that they are producing a product that thinks about the planet.”
The future of farming also highlighted high land values, encroaching development, succession planning, losing young farmers, soil conditions and climate change, global trade and American protectionism, high input costs, and little control over commodities pricing.
Palmer also spoke to a change in the number of young farmers now interested in sustainable agriculture, something she said they hadn’t heard of that were interested previously.
“I never had the sense that there were too many people in the farming community who were that interested in it, but in meeting with OFA (Ontario Federation of Agriculutre) and PEFA (Prince Edward Federation of Agriculutre), we did hear that there are young farmers who are very interested in this and we are looking at how we actually create multiple revenue streams for people in the agricultural sector, how do we spread the benefits of tourism to a wider population.“
Agri-tourism and on-farm diversified uses will form part of the sustainable agriculture idea to promote exploring funding streams and supports to build on-farm diversified uses, with an aim is to encourage adding value to what’s grown on the farm, to help generate varied revenue streams.
The proposed action plan also addresses professional services, how to attract and support small business, with ideas such as exploring a Made in PEC branding program, expanding the County Food Hub programming, and launching a PEC farm tour and farmgate map among the many ideas shared. Also exploring a mechanism to open public properties to private enterprise.
Workforce development will focus on the construction and skilled trades sector, to help build the pool of builders.
In terms of expanding opportunities and closing gaps, Palmer said she wanted to promote PEC as a film and television destination, and also a destination for conferences and corporate events, along with expanding industrial land and developing commercial areas. She is also looking at developing a childcare task team.
The importance of investing in parking was also brought up, given the anticipated and proposed massive residential expansion of the County, in a place that already struggles on that front in many areas, particularly in the peak summer months.
“If we are really truly going to be ready for growth, and we are expecting massive growth in both Wellington and Picton, we already have pretty big problems parking in Wellington in particular,” said Palmer. “We need to be thinking about that, what are the plans we are thinking of putting in place, the parking structures and other solutions.”
The proposed economic development action plan is expected to come before council at the end of January for consideration. In the meantime, an economic snapshot is to be presented to council at the Dec. 17 meeting.
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