The decision to bring economic development in-house passed during the June 24th meeting of Peterborough City Council by a vote of 8-3 as Council faces a stagnating local GDP and reports from Peterborough-Kawartha MPP, Dave Smith, that two major companies passed up on the opportunity to build in Peterborough.

While the report and plan to move economic development in-house and create a new division within the City had received unanimous support at General Committee on June 17th, three Councillors reversed their votes when it came time to ratify the decision.

Councillors Alex Bierk, Joy Lachica, and Dave Haacke all voted against moving forward with the particular plan set out by staff to implement the new division, citing concerns around the implementation strategy and the perennial problems of usable serviced lands within the City’s boundaries. 

The plan follows a decision by the City and the County of Peterborough to stop funding the independent non-profit organization Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development (PKED) which has been tasked with overseeing economic growth in Peterborough and the surrounding area since 1998. 

In 2024, the City of Peterborough contributed $1,015,112 in core funding to PKED while the County contributed $790,038. Earlier this month, PKED announced that without the core funding, they would be ceasing operations at the end of 2024 as a result of the lack of City and County funding.

A June 3rd press release from the County indicates that their own decision to move economic development services in-house stems from the notice they received from the City of Peterborough regarding the non-renewal of PKED funding past the end of 2024.

The City’s Director of Strategic Communications, Brendan Wedley, told Arthur in an emailed statement that “the City and County have an excellent relationship, both between the Warden [Bonnie Clark] and Mayor [Jeff Leal] as well as between the senior leadership teams of both organizations.”

Wedley also noted the intentions of both the City and County to “continue to collaborate for regional growth as they each establish their own internal economic development services.”

The in-house plan for the City, as approved, establishes a budget for the remainder of 2024 of $341,000 “to provide for the immediate transitional costs including pivotal staff recruitments” with the money to be found in the Municipal Accommodation Tax Reserve and uncommitted funds from the Sports and Tourism Sponsorship Capital project.

The report also outlines a staffing plan which includes hiring one director with three full time direct reports for the new Economic Development Services Division at the City while other Divisions, including Strategic Communications, would expect two new hires focused on tourism and promotion.

But this structure is too rigid, said Councillor Bierk during debate on the motion claiming that he would prefer to see a strategy that would allow the new hires to tell the City what is required to effectively build the new City Divisions.

Bierk explained that he would rather see the subject matter experts that the City will eventually hire to do the necessary work of building the Division.

“We have a history of approving things in a sort of vague, loose way…and then later on finding out there's very heavy costs attached to that,” he said. “To me, it would make better sense to approve a softer implementation strategy, get the right people to the city, and then have those people present to us what structure they want, and to sell us on that structure.”

Meanwhile, Councillor Dave Haacke reiterated his concerns over the lack of land available to companies looking to locate in the area. During his remarks, Haacke said that he had spoken to MPP Smith about the prospect of two companies moving to the area, revealing that they had been in need of “hundreds of acres” which the City is nowhere close to being able to offer.

This is despite efforts to bring cross-border servicing, which includes expanding municipal water, utilities, and sewer infrastructure into surrounding townships. The addition of wording around this initiative to the City’s official plan was approved at Council in March of this year with the intention being to attract larger employers to Peterborough and continue collaborations with the County on this front when it is “mutually beneficial” to do so.

However, the prospect of the City—or indeed PKED—being able to capitalize on cross-border servicing is still years away which leads Haacke to feel that this is an issue which should not be set at the feet of PKED, who he said is taking “the brunt of something that I don't think they deserve.”

Councillor Joy Lachica noted that she had “thought long and hard” about the decision noting that she feels “a little bit torn” as she thanked PKED President and CEO, Rhonda Keenan, and her team for building the foundation of the strategy for economic development that the City is now inheriting.

One of the more vocal critics of PKED during his years on Council has been Councillor Keith Riel who on Monday repeated his concerns that having a stand-alone team in charge of this portfolio means that the City has less control over how its resources are being utilized. 

Riel told his fellow Council members that it is the City’s job to try and increase the productivity of businesses in the City, which will create more opportunities for employment and help in rectifying the current issues in the City’s tax base which currently relies heavily on residential property taxes.

“If you want the same-old, same-old then you're not very progressive in my mind,” Riel said. “We need a progressive Council that wants to move the City forward.”

 “I think it’s long overdue,” Riel added. “We need a department here that's going to answer to us.”