Niagara Region forging ahead with economic development strategy

Project will rely on local experts, rather than a hired gun

Niagara Region staff will strike out on their own, with a little help from their friends, in formulating a long-term economic development strategy for Niagara.

The planning and economic development committee voted Wednesday to eschew an outside consultant — who would have cost taxpayers more than $100,000 — and instead put Val Kuhns, the Region’s acting director of economic development, in charge.

“I’m tired of consultants coming in with a cookie-cutter of what they have already done in Moncton, New Brunswick, and Kelowna, B.C., and Brandon, Manitoba” St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik said.

“Then they change the name, and then charge us $120,000 for work they have already done.”

He suggested Kuhns would be perfect for the lead role.

“You are probably the most knowledgeable person we have about economic development,” Sendzik said. “I would have more confidence in you coming to council with a 10-year strategic plan, and an outline of how to get there.”

The plan for creating the economic development strategy is a reboot of a process Niagara’s former economic development director, Dominic Ursini, cancelled for reasons that were never made public.

Ursini was hired by former chief administrative officer Carmen D’Angelo, only to be fired in a December 2018 purge with a group of other staffers.

Both Brock University and Niagara College helped provided funding for the initial stages and supplied expertise. Officials were appalled when the Region abandoned the project, though they expressed their dismay through back channels.

Kuhns said the new strategic plan would build on the work completed before Ursini mothballed the project.

Sendzik said the Region would be wellserved by working with the lower-tier municipalities in forming the new strategic plan.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “St. Catharines has an economic development strategy. Welland has an economic development strategy. Fort Erie has one. If we are going to succeed in the next 15 to 20 years, these strategies should be done together.

“I can take this back to the City of St. Catharines and see how much we can put into it. Maybe it will only be $15,000, but if the municipalities take some ownership we could have a regionwide, community-driven plan we all embrace,” Sendzik added.

Kuhns warmed to the idea as the meeting went on, with the caveat that the economic development office lacks resources to handle the entire project on top of its existing duties.

St. Catharines councillors Tim Rigby and Brian Heit suggested the project budget could be adjusted to allow some reinforcements on an ad hoc basis.

“The one thing you will miss without a consultant is having someone who has done this before, and has the knowledge of best practices and alternative ways of doing things,” Kuhns said.

“What I do like here is the commitment of having all the different economic development offices working collaboratively and producing something we believe in.”

Lincoln Coun. Rob Foster reminded the committee the project’s architects will need to identify some metrics for the project, so council can see if the plan is succeeding.

“One of the things I struggle with, and I’m sure the staff does as well, is finding a way to decide if we have been successful when all is said and done.

“We can sing Kumbaya all we want, but the mayors are going to have to lead the charge on this if it is to succeed.”

In the end, the committee voted for staff to bring forward a plan to reorganize the long-term strategic plan using local resources.