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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEcon Dev Adv 2008-12-17 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES December 17, 2008 City of Kitchener The Economic Development Advisory Committee met this date, chaired by Adrian Conrad; the following members were in attendance: Lawrence Bingeman, Bob Denton, Glen Woolner, Peter Benninger, Len carter, Jeremy Auger, Don Zehr The following people sent their regrets: Howie Budd, Willy Heffner, Mark Collins, The following people were absent: Ian Cook Staff in attendance: Rod Regier, Tracey DeVille, Silvia Wright, Cory Bluhm, Terry Boutilier, Kathy Weiss, 1. Minutes & Agenda It was agreed by the Committee that approval of the November minutes be deferred to the January meeting. 2. Business Arising / Updates Manufacturing Innovation Network (MIN) Update Valerie Bradford provided a demonstration of the MIN webpage and an overview of what the website is designed to do and accomplish. She advised that senior levels of government declined to provide any funding; however, she noted that the MIN group will be presenting this concept to the Region in hopes of gaining their financial support. The following questions and comments were raised by the Committee: Will students be able to access the site? Yes they can. As well, a job board is posted This is a great thing to see as a result of the business visitation program, the fact that it is free is great. Congratulations to all that have been involved and made this happen Since this came out of the visitation program, when will the next visitation program be held and do we know the focus? The visitation program has been done bi-annually, with the creation of MIN, staff feel the importance of complete focus on that project is vital at the moment and the next visitation program has not yet been scheduled. Valerie Bradford asked the Committee to forward the names of any new businesses in the City that she can ensure they receive a visit with them. 3. Ontario Mayors for Automotive Investment Rod Regier provided an overview of the Ontario Mayors for Automotive Investment conference he attended on behalf of Mayor Carl Zehr. - informal group of manufacturing municipalities that meet 2 to 3 times a year - this meeting focused on the issues surrounding the automotive sector - 40% decline of sales in the US – we supply 85% of that - Adjustments to the size and types of vehicles are happening and the lack of sales in those have been showing - Credit for the industry – one – credit consumer demand is falling in the us second – renewal of operating lines are beginning to dry up the big 3 are delaying their payments schedules as a result this has created problems - Ontario Mayors believe that the fall out of the auto industry would dwarf the credit bailout option Global economy discussion A roundtable discussion regarding the current global economy took place and the following comments were tabled: Biggest issue is consumer confidence, we need to start presenting data on o impact bases and the message needs to be in perspective to everything we read in the media, people need to understand what unemployment numbers really mean, we need to put these numbers into perspective – what were the numbers in the 90s, in the 80s, prices of oil put money back in your pocket, credit situation positive right now residential mortgages are safe in Canada and there is money there for those – they are safe if they are insured by cmhc, it is cheaper to borrow right now this is not the concern issue is the confidence, government should put a freeze on negative news about the economy, The commercial rental market is also showing consumer confidence o issues – there was agreement from other members that the real estate market was good up until about 2 or 3 weeks ago and they are starting to see a decline In the 80s it was tuff in the hospitality industry, it is starting a little now but o so far it is not as bad, we are seeing large company parties in the past have decreased in size, you see it in restaurants etc. In summary there is clearly a communications challenge that everyone needs to understand the need to be an advocate for advertising the positive as a way to ensure consumer confidence. Life Sciences & Biotech Strategy Rod Regier provided an overview and update on the life science strategy and provided an overview of the next steps. SHI has been collaborating with the partners to have this move forward to the next stage: SHI developed a report that will be distributed to the stakeholders and champions of the project. We met with small life science start ups to discuss how they need support of intellectual property, we also met with established companies and asked them how we position ourselves to attract the businesses and people they will require. An on-going up date regarding this project will be a regular agenda item. On motion, the meeting was adjourned at 1:00 pm.