As part of conducting in-house operations for economic development beginning next year, the City of Peterborough, Ont., intends to launch a new division and create its own tourism brand.
On Monday night, Peterborough city councillors reviewed a staff report outlining plans to create its own economic development division. Both the city and Peterborough County gave notification to Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development (PKED) that it would proceed with its own in-house operations, ending a 25-year relationship with the corporation.
As a result, PKED announced earlier this month it will dissolve at the end of 2024.
City council on Monday gave initial approval to begin moving operations in-house with the goal to begin providing economic development and tourism-related services as of Jan. 1, 2025. The report says a budget of $341,000 assist “immediate transitional costs” to pivot staff.
The internal “Economic Development Services Division” is expected to have about six staff which would include a director. However, the report notes staffing will be fully determined following the hiring of the director. PKED currently has 15 employees and a number of summer student positions.
“We need jobs in Peterborough and we need a driver to bring jobs here to sell them,” said Ward 4 Coun. Keith Riel as council discussed the report.
The report says the city’s 2024 budget includes a transfer to PKED for its base operations of just over $1 million. With council approval, the funds can be redirected to fund the economic development division in the 2025 budget.
Under tourism, the city will create a new brand called “Experience Peterborough” which the report says will have the city’s divisions of Arts and Culture, Recreation and Park Services, and Strategic Communications and Service Peterborough supporting tourism functions to “attract events and market the city as a destination.”
However, Ward 3 Coun. Alex Bierk was skeptical of the new approach, believing the city risks falling into the same patterns.
‘We would get a lot farther on this, if we actually incorporated the people that this was affecting right from the get go,” he said. “Because what happens then is you get pointed out things that you wouldn’t have thought of.”
Bierk, a local business owner, said the city also hasn’t put enough emphasis on the downtown.
“I just hope that we don’t get lost in the grand vision of the Amazon factory in the county or something like that,” he said. “Because the mom and pop businesses are the life blood of this city.”
The city is looking for new life in its economy. Data often referenced by Mayor Jeff Leal places the city’s growth domestic product growth last among among the Census Metropolitan Areas in Ontario.
Leal says one major challenge is finding new employment lands to allow for business expansions and introductions.
“It’s about those entrepreneurs that need to feel welcome, that they know when they come to Peterborough, their business, their startup has a reasonable chance of being successful,” Leal said.
Leal said he’s also pitching plans to structure the city’s new economic director’s salary based on performance.
“In order to achieve the 10 per cent growth on the assessment base and the 15 per cent increase in our GDP, we need performance,” Leal said. “We need people who are working in this agency to reach those targets.”