Wellington County is attempting to come up with an economic development strategy in a move to link and combine economic development work being done individually in its seven municipalities and by the newly-created county economic development committee.
A group of meetings is taking place across the county and, on June 13, representatives from economic development committees (EDC), businesses and employment agencies from Mapleton, Minto and Wellington North participated in a forum at Pike Lake.
The county has hired consulting firm Millier Dickinson Blais Inc. to undertake the meetings and compile information for a report expected by October.
The local forum attracted about 50 people who were asked for input on what makes a strong economic strategy and the drawbacks to successfully putting together a plan and making it work.
Erik Lockhart, an associate director of the Queen’s Executive Decision Centre was the forum moderator.
“The county wants to create an action plan which will form EDC strategy for the next five years,” Wellington County economic development officer Jana Reichert said.
“We’re looking for an economic strategy for all the county and we’re looking at all the communities,” consultant Lauren Millier said.
It is anticipated the county population will be about 122,000 and provide some 54,000 jobs by 2013.
The county population grew by 6.8 per cent over the last decade or about 5,529 new people moving to Wellington. A higher percentage of the population is between 45 to 64 years old and 65 and older than the broader region.
Wellington County is also expected to attract a growing number of new Canadians.
“In the future, all new net growth in labour force will depend on immigration,” statistics compiled by the consulting firm show.
Make up of the labour force shows it is well educated, with 53.3% holding some form of post-secondary or specialized training.
Labour concentrations are in industrial, traditional, and population-related sectors. Manufacturing accounts for 19.6 per cent of the working population, while retail accounts for 8.8 per cent, health care 8.5 per cent, agriculture 8,4 per cent and construction 7.8 per cent.
As of the end of December, 2011, there were 7,812 businesses in the county, a decline of 2.9 per cent in total. The county registered a 4.9 per cent increase overall in employers since 2007.
About 1,782 businesses employed one to four people, while 622 businesses had between five to nine workers. Those employers were concentrated in traditional and industrial sectors like construction, transportation, warehousing, and agriculture
Medium to larger businesses of about 50 people were concentrated in manufacturing, transportation, and accommodations and food services
Creative occupations include scientists, technologists, artists, entertainers, managers and analysts and the labor force in those occupations grew 16.8 per cent from 2001 to 2012 comprising about 28 per cent of the labor force.
Specialist managers, 31.1 percent, and finance and insurance, 29.5 per cent, led growth.
Professional occupations in arts and culture showed 26.3 per cent growth, including artists, web and software creators and architecture and engineering.
“Economic development efforts can be complex and attracting investment is competitive,” those attending the meeting were told. “The county can’t work in isolation.”
Lockhart posed several questions to those attending the forum including what they believe are the qualities in the rural part of the county to attract business and what are the drawbacks to bringing business in.
On the positive side, responses varied from a better quality of life in the rural setting where residents tend to be more community minded to a more diverse economy with a majority of small and medium size businesses, to close proximity to markets for companies shipping their products out to a larger market and closeness to major transportation networks.
On the negative side, responses included failure locally to promote the area to those in urban areas, both individuals and businesses, failure to promote affordable housing here compared to the cities and to promote the fact the area has good health care, recreation facilities and the natural surroundings.
Participants also pointed to government red tape at the municipal, county and provincial levels as being stumbling blocks to economic development. Work should be done to have more serviced industrial and commercial lots available and keep development charges in line. Several mentioned work needed done to keep major roadways in good condition.
The mainstay suggestions will make it into the final report.
“This is a big step, but I think with all your input we’ve started the ball rolling,” Minto mayor George Bridge, who is also chairman of the county EDC, said of the forum.
