Closed for business

Council slashes economic development in the County

“Shortsighted” is how Picton Councillor Bev Campbell described council’s decision to slash $155,000 from the County’s economic development budget. In fact she used the term a couple of times as she tried to explain to her fellow councillors that they could not have chosen a worse time to cut the sales and marketing arm from the local government.

“There are two sides to a budget,” explained Campbell, “revenue and expenditure. We’ve done a lot to cut expenditures— now is not the time to cut the department that generates revenue.”

But several on council smelled the opportunity to at last to carve up a department they either don’t value, don’t like or do not understand. Some have never put stock in the creative rural economy now being emulated across the country. Still others don’t like the way it is changing their community or the folks it attracts.

Some just want jobs. Well-paying full-time jobs with benefits.

They argue that County’s economic development strategy is creating opportunities for individuals and entrepreneurs but isn’t producing the kinds of jobs that encourage families to settle here and or return to the County after their education.

But as Hillier Councillor Alec Lunn put it to a group of residents at a town hall meeting last week in Ameliasburgh, “The County has never been a place to find a job, but it is a place where you can find work.”

He says the creative rural economy that is being marketed by the Economic Development Office is entirely consistent with the tradition and history of the County’s economy. “There is always work and opportunity for those who want to go and find it,” said Lunn.

He said marketing efforts are necessary even if results are difficult to quantify.

“We know it works,” said Lunn.

Sophiasburgh councillor Terry Shortt agreed the ED department had racked up accomplishments, but in a year of budget cuts “everyone needs to contribute.”

No municipal budget, however, is being slashed as savagely as economic development.

For some cutting the economic development budget is not about saving money but rather about changing how economic development is practiced.

Picton Councillor Brian Marisett isn’t satisfied with just slashing the EDO’s budget. He also wants to put Economic Development Officer Dan Taylor on a short leash. He says the funding cut leaves enough money for the department to apply for grants to supplement his funding but that he wants council to monitor the grants he is applying for.

But others, including Campbell, decried the funding cut as a “false economy.”

“This amounts to 20 percent of the department’s budget,” said Campbell. “No other budget has been slashed in this way.”

Bloomfield councillor Barry Turpin agreed.

“Cutting this budget is not good value,” said Turpin. “The County is far better known than it was 10 years ago. People like the Bake family have been encouraged to come here and invest in Main Street Picton. We have had 32 wineries come and invest here—with major spin-offs.” Wellington councillor Jim Dunlop said it was “unfair” to slash the ED budget without the department head in the room to challenge the assertions.

“We’re getting good value for our dollars.”

But it wasn’t enough. In the end Brian Marisett, Jamie Forrester, Nick Nowitski, Dianne O’Brien, Janice Maynard and Barb Proctor voted in support of MacDonald’s motion to cut of $155,000 from the economic development budget. Mayor Peter Mertens said council had made its decision and it likely won’t be reconsidered.

“I personally believe this is short-sighted,” said Mertens. “It is the wrong time to cut in areas designed to build and grow our local economy. But it is council’s decision to make and it has decided.”

Taylor was unavailable for comment.