The value of economic development in a community can be measured by innovative ways to attract business and people.
It has become a buzz phrase in municipal circles in Wellington County, which is in the process of creating an economic development department to attract business by promotion. And while the county grapples with how its economic development efforts will take shape, Minto, under the guidance of its business economic development manager Belinda Wick-Graham already has charted a course where local talent and creativity is playing a part in economic development at different community levels.
Leaving local economic development in the hands of Wick-Graham is a good fit considering she is a local girl, born and raised in Harriston, Mayor George Bridge will say at any opportunity. He may also be looking to Wick-Graham for advice in his new role as chairman of the county’s economic development committee.
It was when Wick-Graham was about to graduate from Brock University with a tourism administration degree she saw a job posting from Minto.
She got the job as a tourism coordinator and eventually applied and was hired as business development manager seven years ago. She has taken courses at the University of Waterloo to obtain her economic development certification through the Economic Development Association of Canada, something she earned earlier this year, scoring 85%. She can count herself among about 200 people holding that certification nationwide.
Wick-Graham is a believer the success of any economic development venture is a result of people across the community working together. Groups include businesses, artists, service clubs, farmers, agricultural societies, and elected officials.
“We overlap in a lot of stuff,” she said.
One of the first programs Wick-Graham was involved with was downtown revitalization for Clifford, Harriston and Palmerston. The plan considered ways to improve them through such things as park revitalization initiated by service clubs, getting information about the community on the town’s website, which, in the past year, has seen significant upgrades to make it easier for users, and eventually provide municipal funding to spruce up storefronts.
Wick-Graham was involved in a business retention and expansion study in 2007 with a goal of tracking businesses that exist, size of the workforce, expansion plans and products produced.
She expects the town will undertake a similar study again in the near future, tracking retention and expansion trends in the agricultural community.
One of the spinoffs from the downtown revitalization plan was the creation of a Move to Minto campaign sponsored by the Minto Chamber of Commerce. Chamber president John Mock said the chamber convinced 24 businesses to launch the campaign.
A sidebar campaign known as Minto Bucks was launched giving people an opportunity to purchase gift certificates at participating businesses with five per cent of whatever they purchased going to the service club of their choice. Service clubs participate in buck sales on a rotating basis.
The chamber had about 5,000 color brochures made for the campaign, stating, “Reasons to move to Minto… – affordable to live, work or commute, a culturally rich community including arts, heritage, live theatre, libraries and much more, fastest internet access in Ontario to every urban home and business, ideally located within an hour of cities and beaches, fun for the whole family with easy access to three arenas, two outdoor swimming pools, splash pad, outdoor Sports pad, tennis courts, many soccer pitches, countless ball diamonds, 27 hole golf course, community-owned movie theatre and so much more.”
“We’re trying to generate and keep money in our economy,” Mock said.
Wick-Graham added, “They [service clubs] are like a little sales force for local business gift certificates.”
Both agree the campaign marries key ingredients in any successful economic development campaign – promoting local goods, bringing people into the community to buy local products and to consider moving to Minto.
“We had people come in and say they bought a computer at a store here because of the Minto bucks,” Wick-Graham said of feedback the chamber has received.
The Move to Minto campaign is also featured on the town website with links to the chamber and local real estate. For April and May, the website had 350 visits and 1,202 views. The average time spent on this site was about three-and-a-half minutes.
“For a new site, this has had an excellent uptake,” Wick-Graham said.
Minto has had a cultural plan for about three years to help guide political decisions on economic development.
Wick-Graham is part of a cultural roundtable comprised of a cross section of people from the community to assist with planning.
“Stakeholders develop an action plan,” she said of those taking part in future projects. “The cultural plan connects so many things. It ties into everything. It’s not just arts and culture, it’s the creative economy.”
The cultural plan sets it apart from other municipalities, the she added. “We’re the smallest rural community to have done a cultural plan.”
Wick-Graham has been successful in securing government grants to help finance some programs and studies the town has undertaken. Any financial assistance is welcome to augment the town’s economic development budget of about $155,000.
She is looking forward to the county establishing its economic development plan and working with its municipalities on projects. Wick-Graham sees no move by the county to take over economic development at the local level.
“We’re equal partners,” she said.
Minto has already held joint economic development meetings with committees from Wellington North and Mapleton.
The Mapleton economic development committee was recently established and the three communities are considering ways for shared economic development programs.
Wick-Graham credits council with local success of economic development ventures.
“We’ve had a supportive mayor and council.”
