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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEcon Dev Adv - 2005-08-24 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES August 24,2005 11:00am-1:00pm Conestoga Room, Kitchener City Hall Attendance: Peter Benninger, Lawrence Bingeman, Len Carter, Adrian Conrad, Mark Paleczny, Hans Pottkamper, Glen Woolner, Donald Zehr, Councillor Christina Weylie, Councillor John Smola. Regrets: Ed Brooker, Howie Budd, Robert Denton, Sherryl Petricevic, Mayor Zehr, Carla Ladd Absent: Henrik Noesgaard 1. Welcome Hans Pottkamper chaired the meeting and thanked everyone for attending. Hans then welcomed 2 new members of the EDAC committee. Mr. Donald Zehr (ZMG Management) representing Major Retail - outside of Downtown as well as Mr. Adrian Conrad (The Cora Group Inc.) representing Downtown Office owner. Mr. Rod Regier, the City of Kitchener's new Executive Director of Economic Development was also introduced to all members. Each of the new members gave a brief commentary about themselves, and then the current members introduced themselves and said which sector they represent followed by their expectations for being on this particular committee. 2. Review and Adoption of Minutes of June 20th, 2005 There were no errors or omissions to the June minutes. Moved by: Peter Benninger Seconded by: Glen Woolner Carried 3. Update on status of committee applications The last four positions for EDAC should be completed within the next several weeks. The vacancies include: Education, Arts & Culture, Health Care and Housing Development. 4. Corporate Visitation Program Hans Pottkampker briefly described what the program was all about so the new members had an idea of what the survey and discussion to follow were about. Kathy Weiss summarized the findings from data collected from the business visits. Two key issues gleamed from the survey from the City's standpoint are: 1. Need for skilled labour. 2. Opportunity identified for companies willing to look at Brownfields, Adaptive re-use site for relocation of their businesses. City could do a marketing strategy to the particular companies who expressed interest of properties identified in these categories. Lack of Industrial Land was also a common theme, however this is not something that EDAC or City Staff can accommodate based on the public meetings in 2004 and the decision for the EDIF fund to mainly support downtown investment. She suggested a future visitation program might target export oriented companies and these would include clusters such as Biotechnology and Arts Technology & Enterprise. The issues arising from the visits need to be categorized into two areas: 1. Issues that the City of Kitchener can deal with and, 2. Issues that could be influenced externally i.e.: education and transportation - which EDAC can recommend to council Discussions from the EDAC members who made the visits evolved around companies visited also had issued which hoped could be addressed, both short term (i.e.. location of garbage bins) to long term (ie..expansion** or labour market development). Companies were particularly concerned about labour market issues. Many indicate that they are willing to train "the right person", with the right "attitude". Suggestions were made that perhaps EDAC should be promoting effective orientation of youth to the job market in the school system to ensure that they are ready for the workforce once they graduate. Another area discussed in detail was the transportation issue. This will be discussed in future meetings after the presentation from the Region is done at our September or October meeting. Committee members were asked if this program should be continued, and the consensus was yes. Those who participated in the visits felt that the company's visited appreciated the concern and interest the City was taking in their businesses. It was discussed that the findings from the surveys should be released in a report and made public. The concerns from the businesses profiled should be tied in, in a positive way. Rod Regier will sit down with the Business Development division and discuss the "next step" towards the continuation of the corporate visitation program as well as the report mentioned above. They may have results for the September meeting. 5. Non-residential regional lands inventory update Rob Morgan gave a brief outline of the Vacant Non-Residential Land Inventory currently being compiled by the Region. Categories for the various descriptions of land is forthcoming. The goal of the survey is to see what lands are available and to ensure that everyone is on "the same page". This equals the playing field and adds consistency. The survey should be completed by mid September. We may have discussion about this subject at the September meeting. 6. New Business: Future Business Topics: The following are planned topics for future meetings September a) b) Regional Roads Business Visitation October November a) b) c) a) Non residential land inventory update LRT update Presentation by Janice Given (Region) b) U of W School of Pharmacy - Economic impact and opportunities (specifically downtown core) Biotech Cluster update Other ~ discussed: a) The "Downtown" look - advertising possibilities - spreading the word about living in Kitchener b) The "Kitchener Market" c) Update on Kitchener Tourism - specifically - should Kitchener become part of a DMO - Destination marketing organization d) City of Kitchener Brownfield/Inner City Working Group Meeting terminated at 1 :00 p.m. Bernadette Lowry, Recording Secretary Economic Development Advisory Committee October 26, 2005 November 23, 2005 December 14, 2005 Next Meeting: September 28th, 2005 11:00am-1:00 pm City Hall - Conestoga Room Dates and Location of Future meetinos: Conestoga Room, Training Room - Waterloo Region Small Business Centre Conestoga Room