A “plan” isn’t worth the paper its printed on if it merely sits on a shelf. Yet that’s what King’s 1995 “Future 2000 Strategic Plan” has been: It had not been updated since its publication, and for obvious reason: it was a document with no life.
An effective plan is one that reflects and builds on an approach: a living, breathing ongoing focus of resources that adapts to changing dynamics.
Council will soon be updating our Strategic Plan (as well as several other inter-related planning tools and processes). I have a keen interest in these initiatives because, besides being trained in business strategy, I’m acutely aware that King lacks the wealth-generating economy necessary to pay for our unique lifestyle.
If we don’t figure out how to sustainably increase our tax base while at the same time preserve and protect our natural, heritage and artistic assets, I fear we’ll ultimately be split up and absorbed into our surrounding municipalities.
I’ve reproduced the Globe and Mail article below because it builds on the focused planning that made cities like Stratford transform their economies.
If King continues with our default historic laissez faire approach we’ll continue to be an economy where sluggish growth comes from low-wage retail stores serving our new subdivisions and increasing through-traffic.
I’ll be standing on the proverbial soap box to influence the Township to adopt this approach. Have a look at what Windsor and other cities have done. We are a smaller, more sparsely populated “community of communities” but the principles are the same.
Here’s the key quote from the article:
“… each of the cities … was recognized as being a community ‘with a documented strategy for creating local prosperity and inclusion using broadband and information technology to attract leading-edge businesses, stimulate job creation, build skills, generate economic growth, and improve the delivery of government services.’”
Broadband and high-tech were the focus of these cities’ transformations. That may or may not be what’s appropriate for King, or to this degree. It’s the process and the strategy that’s essential.
There is cause for optimism: never before in the history of King have we had new Council leadership that has the awareness and ability to carry forward with a living, breathing economic development strategy:
- Mayor Steve Pellegrini is well versed in economic development via his vast career experience with the City of Brampton and has committed to revitalizing King’s stagnant economic plan. I’m delighted he’s been appointed as York’s appointee to the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA) which brings together the 29 municipalities and regions in the Greater Toronto Area, the governments of Ontario and Canada, several not-for-profit organizations and a broad cross section of private sector corporations. It actively promotes the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) internationally, and provides companies with professional assistance in evaluating, planning and implementing an expansion or move to the GTA.
- Councillor Cleve Mortelliti has a strong background in development and planning, critical skills valuable to help guide King in accommodating change required for planned growth.
- Councillor Debbie Schaefer has a strong background in business, both domestically and internationally, in her experience with Proctor & Gamble, plus her MBA.
- Councillor Avia Eek is a successful farmer and farming advocate who will be no doubt instrumental in defining and developing niche opportunities for this key King industry.
I’m very excited about the next 4 years, and beyond, in King.
The bright new era of Windsor, Ont.: Not just lunch buckets any more
SIRI AGRELL
From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail
Tuesday, Feb. 01, 2011
In just a few weeks, a group of visitors from Honolulu will arrive in Windsor, Ont., where they will be greeted by the mayor and toured around town by a selection of the city’s best and brightest.
It’s not a place on many Canadians’ must-see list, a former automotive centre ingrained in the national psyche as a kind of northern Detroit, a city intangibly associated with a dying industry and all its correlated smog and sadness.
But for the past few years, the region has been quietly transforming itself, transitioning from automotive to aerospace, embracing new technologies and a future fueled by solar power rather than gasoline.
Last month, the city was named, along with Stratford, Ont., as one of the top seven most intelligent communities in the world, a tribute to a postrecession reinvention that has captured international attention while being largely overlooked at home.
“You go through a crisis like we did, you’ve got to devote all your resources and energy to ensure that you turn things around,” said Mayor Eddie Francis. “We would have failed if we came out of this recession as the same old city relying on the same old thing.”
A panel of judges from the Hawaii-based Intelligent Community Forum will arrive in Southwestern Ontario in March before naming the Intelligent Community of the Year in New York City this June.
The short list is a veritable who’s who of former manufacturing centres forced toward reinvention by grim economic prospects. Chattanooga, Tenn., was once named by the U.S. government as the American city with the dirtiest air. Riverside, Calif., was primarily known for its pollution rate and gang activity. And Issy-les-Moulineaux in France used to be nothing more than a heavily industrialized suburb of Paris.
But each of the cities, along with Dublin, Ohio, and Eindhoven, the Netherlands, was recognized as being a community “with a documented strategy for creating local prosperity and inclusion using broadband and information technology to attract leading-edge businesses, stimulate job creation, build skills, generate economic growth, and improve the delivery of government services.”
The ICF website describes Windsor by noting its physical proximity to Detroit, the American poster child for postrecession despair, and mentions that the Canadian city “shares its pain.”
This closeness has actually prompted some of Windsor’s most noteworthy innovations.
When more than 400 homes and buildings were demolished to facilitate a new international border crossing, the resulting scrap was quickly inventoried in a searchable electronic database, making 250 tons of building material instantly available to non-profits like Habitat for Humanity.
The region also has a large population of asthma sufferers, but a deficit of available respirologists. To help expedite people’s treatment, an online portal was created so local physicians could communicate remotely with appropriate experts, allowing for faster diagnoses and more effective treatment.
Since the program’s inception, asthma-related emergency-room visits in Windsor have dropped by 69 per cent and sick leave at a local Chrysler plant went down by 56 per cent.
Mr. Eddie said the city’s bold leap into the 21st century was propelled by the realization that the automotive sector would never again be able to solely support the local economy.
Instead, the region has worked to attract new industries, with a focus on high tech, new media and alternative energy.
And if the rest of the country hasn’t noticed, the business world definitely has.
The Canadian Consulate in New York is planning a reception during the ICF summit to promote Windsor and Stratford as viable locations for companies to invest or relocate.
Today, IBM Canada will trumpet its connection with Windsor via press release, championing its involvement in several of the city’s technology enabled initiatives, including the asthma portal, which helped the city gain international recognition.
Alan Buterbaugh , senior vice-president of Wireless Ronin, a digital signage company based in Windsor, said much of the talent that moved to the city during the automotive-sector boom remained loyal to the area and helped usher in the new era.
“I think the foundation has always been here,” he said. “But to see the level of energy in the community around these types of things has been quite exciting.”
But Kristina Verner, of the University of Windsor’s Centre for Smart Community Innovation, said the city’s changes have become a competitive advantage, one that would grow exponentially should it win the top spot in June, joining the ranks of such influential municipalities as New York and Stockholm.
“It’s crazy bragging rights and access for economic development,” she said. “Being referred to as an intelligent community versus the old label of Lunch Bucket Town, it completely changes the way people see us.”
Link to article
Click here for more on Stratford’s successful economic diversification
