Wellington County is in the midst of a new era in economic development with the launch of a county-wide business retention and expansion (BRE) project.
Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj described it as a very exciting project in Centre Wellington and throughout the county “to finally put into place a project which is a real outreach to everyone who does business in Centre Wellington.”
“We can talk and get valuable information which will help us with our community growth plan.”
She added, “we are anxious to see what we need to do to make this work.”
Wellington County economic development officer Jana Reichert was part of a road show by the Wellington Economic Development Department to launch the initiative.
Reichert agreed, “this is a very exciting project.”
The project stemmed from Wellington County’s economic development strategy, which was also a collaborative effort with local municipalities.
That strategy was approved by county council last November.
“We are very strong in manufacturing, agriculture, health care and the creative sectors,” said Reichert, who noted there was considerable consultation and information gathered.
“Our largest base of business are companies with less than 10 employees. They make up 75 per cent of our business base.”
As a result, those are the businesses being targeted by the program.
Reichert said the implementation plan follows the economic development strategy.
She said the intent is to focus on four key activities and the BRE plan exercise is part of the work to complete in the next two years.
She said part of the implementation plan involves generating a comprehensive list of businesses within the county.
Reichert anticipated that aspect of the work should be completed by August.
Another aspect of the work includes finding out what the concerns of the business community are and what the strengths are.
“One of the goals is to create sector profiles.” She compared it to the recently-updated Centre Wellington community profile.
“We want to be able to show our competitive advantages (in various business sectors).”
She added the information from the BRE study will also assist in creating a means to distinguish Wellington County from other areas.
In turn, the project will help develop relevant economic development programming, Reichert said.
She said one of the key purposes of the exercises it to recognize local businesses, understand who they are and as a county and several municipalities, understand the regional contributions of these businesses.
“It is much easier to work with existing businesses who have already invested small to medium size businesses to provide the resources they need.”
She said those are the businesses which can easily grow, create jobs and enter new markets.
“It is much easier certainly than trying to attract a big plant into our area and hoping they hire as many people as possible – and that they remain to diversify the economy.”
Reichert added, “By supporting small and medium size enterprises, we are able to diversify the business base.”
She said, “We want to get to know our businesses and develop a rapport, looking into the future with potential partnerships.”
She explained that this process makes use of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food’s (OMAF) BRE (business retention and expansion) tool.
“This will be able to help us look two, three or five years down the road … as to what will help us as economic development officers or planners … to do our jobs better.”
Reichert cited recent training in the OMAF program.
“It is a great tool because it helps you get to know your businesses and to start thinking about activities for the future.”
Work includes identifying business sectors across the county, selecting businesses and conducting in-person interviews.
“We’re really here to listen.”
She said data is then reviewed to recommend actions.
Reichert considers the county-wide approach unique in Ontario and a first for Wellington County.
“We’ve got an excellent economic development group which has met on a monthly basis. It’s been phenomenal because it’s expanded to not only include municipalities, but service agencies.”
“It’s not only a great way to share information, but to understand what is going on in other areas.”
She said there is a lot of support and commitment from every municipality.
The effort is a collaboration with municipalities, with Wellington County providing overall coordination, printing, mailing, plus a final report, a weekend retreat with industry leaders, a thank you package and an end-of-project celebration.
The project is slated for nine months with the project preparation and launch now in place.
However. Reichert stressed “this is not just a one-off, the idea is to make this an annual program – on a smaller scale – to monitor and work with the business community.”
Reichert agreed issues will be different within each community.
The project launch was July 15 and business interviews are anticipated to begin in September.
These involve interviews across the county with 10 representatives of each business sectors within the municipalities.
These sectors include agriculture, manufacturing, health care and creative economies.
Other sectors may be identified by municipalities and community-specific questions can also be addressed.
Each municipality would coordinate its interviews.
By March the analysis and feedback will be reported back with the intent of moving forward on the recommendations of that report.
Reichert stressed because this is the first time, the county is focussed on doing this right.
The base survey can be supplemented by community-specific questions. However, Reichert urged communities to only ask questions where the information cannot be found somewhere else.
The other request was that the questions be about issues where something can actually be done.
Councillor Kelly Linton said this appears to be a great project.
“I really like the way it is laid out.” However, he asked what the interview process will be like.
Reichert explained there would be an individual posing a question to the business owner, while another person would act as the recorder.
“A big part of this is confidentiality. We are not passing (confidential) information forward.”
Linton then asked about the thrust of the questions.
“What are you trying to get at out of the interviews?”
Reichert said the idea is to find out who the businesses are and what they do in the county. She used the example of a plastics supplier being able to discover a supplier a bit closer than out of province. She added there may be other activities which could create partnerships as well.
Linton was pleased it seemed to look at practical ideas that could be acted on.
Councillor Fred Morris asked how the four business sectors were determined.
Reichert said those sectors came directly from Wellington’s economic profile.
She said across the entire county there are businesses represented in those areas – more so than any other sector.
“We understand that there is something in Wellington County brewing that allows manufacturing to work well here. We need to support that.” She also noted it will be up to individual municipalities to choose businesses representing economic sectors in their region.
Linton asked if one of the outcomes will be the roles of the municipality versus the county when it comes to economic development.
Reichert said until the process is complete, “we don’t know what we don’t know.”
Councillor Steven VanLeeuwen asked where the manpower was coming from to accomplish the interviews.
Reichert explained, “The municipality chooses who they want to do the interviews.”
CAO Andy Goldie said there are also discussions with the local chamber of commerce on potential partnerships. He noted there is money in the 2013 budget to support this process.
Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj said she was looking forward to seeing the business expansion and retention plan move along.
