Peterborough County will be opening an economic development and tourism office in Lakefield as it continues to prepare to assume responsibility for economic development and tourism in advance of the dissolution of Peterborough & The Kawarthas Economic Development (PKED) at the end of the year.
At county council’s regular meeting on Wednesday morning (August 7) — the first regular meeting since June 24 — councillors received an update from PKED and considered two staff reports about preparations for assuming the responsibilities that PKED previously provided on behalf of the county.
Earlier this year, both the city and county of Peterborough decided not to renew a multi-year tri-party agreement to fund PKED to provide economic development and tourism services on behalf of both municipalities. The county’s decision came after the city, which provides most of PKED’s core funding, decided to withdraw from the agreement.
In a report outlining the activities of the non-profit organization for the first two quarters of 2024, PKED board chair Burton Lee and president and CEO Rhonda Keenan noted two challenges for tourism and economic development as the city and county take these services in-house beginning January 1, 2025.
“Supporting (event organizers) that are interested in Peterborough and what level of support they will receive will continue to be a challenge until a new economic development plan is developed that determines whether this activity is desired, and if so, who will deliver on this work beyond 2024,” the report states.
“The uncertainty regarding the economic development program beyond 2024 and how the work will be transitioned has created a great challenge. Businesses want to understand how
they will be supported; there is little information to provide. Similarly, destination marketing and investment attraction marketing require long lead times for seasonal and out-of-region marketing. There should be a coordinated effort between the City, County and PKED to deliver a coordinated message and assure the entrepreneurial and business community that there is a plan to provide ongoing support.”
During Wednesday’s meeting, councillors were asked to approve a recommendation from county CAO Sheridan Graham that the county enter into an agreement with Selwyn Township on September 1 to lease office space in Lakefield for the purpose of establishing a county economic development and tourism and services hub.
The report from Graham states that the county’s economic development transition committee — which comprises three county councillors and representatives from all eight townships in the county — feels that a public-facing office in the county “is of utmost importance,” along with satellite offices in each township.
“This would be an office that would be staffed and could provide economic development, tourism and other services to our customers,” the report states. “It would be a hub and spoke model, from which our staff could further integrate these services into each Township. The Committee requested that each Township put forward a location that could be used as a satellite office for services in the Township offered by the County and other partners.”
The proposed location for the new county office is the former post office at 12 Queen Street in Lakefield, which was previously occupied by the Kawartha Chamber of Commerce and Tourism prior to its 2021 amalgamation with the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce to form the Peterborough and Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce. The township completely renovated the space, which is fully accessible and provides public washroom facilities.
According to Graham’s report, both the Peterborough and Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce and Community Futures Peterborough — which is assuming responsibility for the Business Advisory Centre (BAC), offered as part of the province’s Small Business Enterprise Centre (SBEC) program and previously delivered by PKED — have committed to partnering with the county and to use space in the building “to be an office and touch point for their County customers.”
“In addition, they are further committed to continued collaboration with the County and Committee and to coordinating the use of the Township spaces provided to provide services further out into the County in each Township,” the report states. “As well, it is anticipated that we will have staff cross train with Chamber and (Community Futures) staff so that we can align services, provide information and schedule customers accordingly.”
The cost of the county leasing the space from Selwyn Township, which would include the main floor and two upstairs offices, would be $2,400 per month, with the Chamber and Community Futures contributing $500 per month to the lease for a drop-down desk space shared by the two organizations.
“I can’t think of a better location to have our Peterborough County economic development and tourism department,” said deputy warden and Selwyn Township mayor Sherry Senis at the meeting, with Sewlyn Township deputy mayor Ron Black echoing her comments.
“I think one of the key issues here is county services being offered in the county, which is a great step forward, but also the partnerships that were also thought of and created with Community Futures, who has just received provincial funding for the Small Business Advisory Centre, so they’ll have staff there as well, and bringing the Peterborough and Kawarthas Chamber back to their Lakefield office, obviously in a smaller entity, but that created a lot of issues when they left,” Black said.
“So I’m very pleased that (county) staff were able to negotiate not only with our township, but also with Community Futures and the Peterborough and Kawarthas Chamber as well. And Selwyn staff will also be in the building. Our economic development people will be in the building as well.”
Peterborough County warden Bonnie Clark said “this is a great start,” adding that “there is more to come” and that she is “looking forward to this rolling out into the rest of the municipalities (in the county).”
Council voted to approve the recommendation.
Councillors also considered another staff report that would affect preparations to bring economic development and tourism in-house. Tracie Bertrand, the county’s general manager of tourism and communications, recommended that the county migrate its corporate website to a new platform before the end of the year.
“The current hosting platform for the County’s website, iCreate, will be discontinued in less than two years, necessitating a migration to a new platform,” the report states. “GHD (previously e-Solutions) has offered Peterborough County value pricing (20% discount) to migrate earlier to Govstack, a superior platform that offers more creative freedom and self-management capabilities.”
“Migrating now, rather than waiting is strategic due to the impending discontinuation of iCreate, and essential for the County’s planned transition of Economic Development and Tourism into the County’s digital infrastructure.”
According to the report, a content and information architecture review of the website was completed in May, including a search of municipal best practices of upper and lower tier municipalities who include economic development and tourism, and the website needs to be updated to include “a microsite dedicated to tourism.”
“Communications staff will need to develop the new tourism microsite and work with Economic Development staff to build out new pages in preparation for 2025,” the report states.
The cost to migrate to the new platform and develop a new tourism microsite will be $46,550 plus HST, according to the report.
While Douro-Dummer Township mayor Heather Watson supported the recommendation, she expressed concerns that e-Solutions Group — which created the iCreate platform before becoming GHD, creating the Govstack platform, and discontinuing the iCreate platform — was an example of a company practising planned obsolescence.
“It’s just dirty pool, what they’ve done,” Watson said. “They created a system, made it obsolete, and now we need to buy their new system in order to play in their sandbox and keep the work we’ve created. What are we doing in the future to mitigate that risk?”
Bertrand replied that this was a “valid concern,” but noted that iCreate is “not overly friendly” for doing anything creative and she has been assured that Govstack is a more flexible platform.
“We can do more on the backend with Govstack than we could ever do with iCreate,” she said. “I’m hoping we don’t have to redevelop the corporate website again, but there’s always the option of looking into that future because things change … we’ll be keeping an eye on what is existing with GHD and what might be out there in the public to look into in the future.”
“It would be the intention when we go to a full new website that we would look at all the options too, not just staying with one provider,” Graham added, noting the migration to Govstack “is to get us through that transition” until the county is ready to make a decision in the future about both its website platform and content management system.
Council voted to approve the recommendation.
