Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj says a recent roundtable on rural employment will be a good resource for Centre Wellington in its own economic development activities.
On June 17, municipal representatives attended a rural employment roundtable discussion at the University of Guelph.
Ross-Zuj said that she, CAO Andy Goldie and planning director Brett Salmon attended the session.
“It brought some interesting data from the academics on what is happening in the rural environment and to the young people ages 18 to 25,” Ross-Zuj said.
The data also looked at some of the obstacles young people face in reaching employment opportunities.
“It did not have a political spin to it,” Ross-Zuj said. “It is strictly data collected.”
She noted “we could certainly provide answers to the political spin as to why some of these things happen.”
Ross-Zuj considered the data a valuable resource when the municipality begins economic development discussions on how to attract more employment opportunities.
The discussion looked at some of the challenges being faced in a rural environment.
She clarified “and they classified rural – as anything under 30,000 residents. It really brings in what we regard as a rural environment.
“It was a good start, and this is good information to have.”
