Economic development is a big picture term that requires detailed and specific action.
That is what makes it so hard to measure and why municipalities struggle to define it. In the case of Clearview, and many of its neighbouring municipalities, economic development would result in a tax base that puts less reliance on residential and provides more income from commercial and light industrial.
Deputy Mayor Barry Burton will say Clearview’s spending isn’t the problem, it’s the lack of income.
Councillor Thom Paterson would say we can’t spend more unless we make more and that we are living in a two per cent world where there are no big increases so the township should live within that means.
Events and tourism are a part of economic development but should not be the main thrust.
Economic development is about creating good paying full-time jobs that make people want to move into the community; more people to shop and send their children to school, which means people are needed to work in the shops and school enrollment goes up. You get the picture. It goes around and around until it’s hard to define the impetus for the growth. But when things slow way down and industry leaves a community, it’s much easier to spot.
We’ve heard people around the table at Clearview council this week struggling to define what needs to be done in order to spur economic development.
We need to tap into a network that not many of us are privy to. We need the schmoozers of the world to start drawing attention to Clearview. The township has laid some groundwork, for example, by preparing the Stayner industrial lands. We now need momentum.
But the manufacturing sector is changing. Clearview is just like every other small town in Ontario and most of Canada. We have been on a losing streak. We have lost manufacturing jobs, farm jobs and jobs of all kinds and there is no reason to believe they will be restored. Our economy is now a bunch of small businesses, sometimes prospering and sometimes scraping by, but rarely growing their workforce.
Hiring an economic development officer at this time is probably not money well spent but something needs to happen.
This council is one year into a four-year term. It’s time to establish the economic development committee. Find willing people who are enthusiastic about Clearview and who are willing to talk it up and strategize about innovative ways to attract development that isn’t residential.
Perhaps the most important thing those charged with growing the economy can do is support its residents and businesspeople who are already innovating or have plans to do so.
We need to make sure the rules are being followed but they aren’t stifling development. Cutting the red tape should be more than just rhetoric.