Peterborough County is moving forward with an economic development and tourism plan for the county and its townships.
During a council meeting on Wednesday (January 22), councillors received a presentation from the county’s economic development general manager Rhonda Keenan and tourism and communications manager Tracie Bertrand, who were seeking council’s approval for proposed priorities for economic development and tourism and the next steps in developing a plan.
The county assumed responsibility for economic development and tourism after Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development (PKED), a not-for-profit organization that had been providing economic development and tourism services on behalf of the County and the City of Peterborough for 25 years, announced it was dissolving at the end of 2024 after the city declined to renew an agreement to continue to provide funding to the organization and the county followed suit.
In September, the county hired Keenan (previously the president and CEO of PKED) along with Sarah Budd (previously the president and CEO of Peterborough and the Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce) to join Bertrand in leading the county’s new economic development and tourism department, with Budd taking on the role of manager of community development.
In late October, the county also opened a new economic development and tourism office, located in the former post office at 12 Queen Street in Lakefield, to serve as the central hub in a “hub and spoke” model that will provide services to businesses and residents across the county, including satellite locations in the various townships.
Meanwhile, the City of Peterborough has yet to hire a person to lead its new economic development department, although an announcement is reportedly imminent.
Introducing her presentation to council, Keenan provided an overview of the activities her team has completed over the past three months, including visiting 13 local businesses, attending 12 local and regional events, responding to 10 inquiries from businesses looking for expansion opportunities and new space, and attending seven tourism roundtables and 10 community service group meetings.
Keenan noted that the Ontario government has announced a new Rural Ontario Development Program aimed at supporting economic growth, workforce capacity and business development in rural communities. The program, which rural affairs minister Lisa Thompson announced on Tuesday (January 21) at the 2025 annual Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) conference, will include $10 million in annual funding over the next two years for a total of $20 million.
“Our plan, as we’re starting to lay it out, is definitely in alignment with the direction of the province, and hopefully with future funding that follows,” Keenan said.
Tuesday was also when the county launched The Business Advantage program with an open-house style session at the Asphodel-Norwood Community Centre, offering local business owners the opportunity to meet with the economic development and tourism team along with representatives from Community Futures Peterborough’s Business Advisory Centre, the Innovation Cluster, and the Peterborough and Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce.
“It was a great kick-off because it was a good steady day, lots of great support, but businesses were able to be connected with the people that they needed to be connected with,” Keenan said. “So that was a great win yesterday, and we are looking forward to Cavan Monaghan (Township) next month, and Havelock-Belmont-Methuen after that, and we continue to want to roll that out and expand.”
Keenan said that local businesses are asking for better connections, and the economic development and tourism department is planning to bring Business Advisory Centre workshops to the county as well as creating the county’s own business-related workshops and events.
After describing the attractions already available in Peterborough County such as Lang Pioneer Village and the diversity of industries in the county, Keenan noted the challenges faced in developing a comprehensive economic development and tourism plan for the county.
She pointed out that each township in the county has different geographic draws and influences, with Trent Lakes near Bobcaygeon in Kawartha Lakes, Havelock-Belmont-Methuen near the City of Belleville, and Cavan Monaghan near Durham Region.
“We also still have the push and pull into the City of Peterborough itself,” Keenan added. “Those influences need to be considered in what types of businesses would do well in each of these communities, but it also gives us as a county the opportunity to recognize that we are being pulled, and create a made in Peterborough (County) solution that is drawing inward and supporting inward.”
Keenan outlined three requirements for growing Peterborough County’s economy: creating jobs as well as increased assessment to grow the municipal tax base, evaluating the existing real estate inventory available for businesses, and collaborating with individual townships that already have their own economic development functions.
Keenan shared a number of sectors that are expected to expand in 2025, including agri-tourism, the wellness economy, vertical farming, mystery tours, and small-scale manufacturing, while recognizing that policies of the new Trump administration may affect economic growth in some sectors.
“I really want to start with what we don’t want,” she said. “I know it’s a hard no for megasites (large contiguous tracts of land that are choice locations for big industrial operations) from previous presentations that I have made. We’re not ready. We don’t want this; we like the appeal of our small-town charm. We don’t have the ability, the housing, the infrastructure, or even the contiguous land to do that.”
Keenan then asked council how they felt about the idea of “smaller industrial condominiums” — buildings that may be around 1,500 square feet and include workshop space, office space, and some retail space.
“This is really the next phase of growth would be for small entrepreneurs to move out of their garages, move out of their basements, and take out space,” she explained. “Having a building such as this also allows for expansion opportunities … as opposed to having to move out to another location when they’ve grown out of space.”
Keenan shared with council what she believes are the priority areas for economic growth that would provide the greatest return on investment: supporting existing businesses, followed by agriculture, tourism, and small-scale manufacturing.
“Our businesses are saying ‘We’re feeling isolated’, ‘We need more support’, ‘We need to be more connected to each other’,” she said. “They’re saying ‘Workforce issues are still keeping me up at night’, ‘We need to have more year-round visitors’.”
For agriculture, Keenan noted that the county has 863 farms, but they are typically small-scale farms selling products at local farm gates and farmers’ markets.
“What we know is that it doesn’t pay them enough, and farmers often have to have full-time jobs to supplement (their income) and they farm in between that work,” she said, adding that a strong agricultural sector means coming up with more ways for farmers to generate more revenue. Some options might include diversified new products, vertical farming, on-farm diversified uses, and agri-tourism.
For tourism, Keenan noted that many tourism operators are “very small mom-and-pop shops” trying to compete with the global travel trade. She said climate change is affecting the traditional winter season, with snowmobilers heading further north or east for consistent conditions, and that creating year-round attractions may necessitate creating something indoors.
She added that there’s an opportunity for the county to become a health and wellness destination.
“We do like to joke internally that the county is where the Electric City comes to recharge,” she said, referring to the City of Peterborough. “I know they won’t like that, but that’s certainly the way we consider it.”
Keenan pointed out that businesses need to create “Instagram-worthy” experiences to attract visitors, and have the opportunity to “bundle packages” with other businesses. She also referred to the Trent-Severn Waterway being listed as a top destination by The New York Times.
“We are anticipating that we’re going to see an uptick in visitation,” she said, before wondering whether businesses in the county are going to be ready for it and whether it will translate into year-round visitation.
For small-scale manufacturing, Keenan said there are 284 manufacturers in the greater Peterborough area, employing 3,685 people and grossing over $3.1 billion. However, 49 per cent of those manufacturers have no employees other than the owner. Of the 284 manufacturers, 165 are food processing operations with one to four employees.
“Manufacturing doesn’t have to be huge, but it creates a huge opportunity,” she pointed out.
After describing the priority areas for economic growth, Keenan described the “made in Peterborough County solution” that would result in the county being a recognized supporter of business with a stable and growing economy, a destination for year-round visitation that has “exciting new experiences,” a recognized collaborator and relationship builder, and growing the key sectors that have the largest potential for economic growth.
“We ultimately want to bring back to you an economic development plan after working through some of those tactics and angles with our (economic development) advisory committee and working group,” Keenan said. “We want to create a collaborative framework so that we’re all aware, and agree, who does what — and again, it might be different between the county and each of the townships, but we all know, as well as our partners. That will allow us to give a workplan and a budget that can be assigned for review for council approval.”
Keenan then asked county council to confirm the direction proposed in her presentation, along with a recommendation that council direct staff to proceed with creating a detailed economic development and tourism action plan through the economic development advisory committee that incorporates feedback and input from council.
Staff would also create a collaborative framework to establish the roles and responsibilities of the county and township economic development functions, and establish a real estate review working group that would report back to council.
After county council approves all the work, staff would then be directed share the results with township councils.
Keenan’s presentation was well received by council. Some of the comments made by councillors included the lack of year-round accommodation, the lack of employment lands, the lack of consistent wayfinding signage throughout the county, the need for performance measures for economic growth outcomes, and the need to create collaborations between local businesses.
In her comments, councillor Lori Burtt, deputy mayor of Asphodel-Norwood Township, noted the success of the first session of The Local Advantage in her community and lauded the work by Keenan and Betrand.
“These two people have done more in our township in the last few months than we’ve received in the last six, seven years,” she said. “That is really appreciated, and our businesses appreciate that as well.”
Council voted to approve a motion to accept the presentation and its recommendations.
