By Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press
Representatives of Invest WindsorEssex (IWE) and Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island (TWEPI) made separate delegations to County of Essex Council during last Wednesday’s meeting, before Budget Deliberations begin on November 28.
Both organizations receive funding from the County of Essex and the City of Windsor. Those shared-services appear on the external commitment contributions are part of the County budget. In 2023, the County provided $1,122,060 to Invest WindsorEssex, $782,700 to Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island (TWEPI), as presented last year.
In September of 2023, Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy put forward a motion asking for a report on all the current financial agreements that are in place, where the County allocates budget dollars, in addition to a report on cost-sharing agreements currently in place between the City and the County, and the County and other third parties. That information was presented in December of last year, ahead of 2024 Budget Deliberations.
Back in July, Essex County Council received a report detailing the results received from a discretionary regional shared services survey sent out to the seven local municipalities. The survey questioned the seven local municipalities on its overall experience with the two regional shared service organizations, TWEPI and IWE, both acting as regional arms representing tourism and economic development, respectively.
In terms of satisfaction, 96% of respondents report being either satisfied or very satisfied with TWEPI products/services. From a reputational standpoint, 91% of respondents rated their impression of TWEPI as good to excellent. The vast majority of respondents (91%) believed their municipality was receiving good value for money from TWEPI.
In terms of satisfaction with IWE, 53% of respondents report being either satisfied or very satisfied. From a reputational standpoint, 52% of respondents rated their impression of IWE was good to excellent. 43% believe their municipality is receiving good value for money.
Joe Goncalves, Interim CEO for IWE, is also the Vice President of Investment Attraction that deals with foreign investment coming into the region. Last week, he thanked County Councillors for participating in that survey as it works to create a Strategic Plan. That was hosted in part in IWE wanting to do a deep dive to get a feel of what the main issues were and how the organization could be aligned to help the seven local municipalities.
“We will be working on that in our Strategy Plan, especially when the new CEO comes in,” Goncalves said. The new position holder is expected to start at the end of the year or beginning of January. Goncalves will assist in the transition and to ensure the issues discussed over the past several months are known to the new CEO.
Goncalves presented a similar presentation to County Council as was presented to Essex Council at the end of October. He spoke of how IWE, over the past two-years, has helped attract $5.7B of foreign direct investment into the region, in addition to adding 5000 direct jobs and 15,000 indirect jobs.
He also spoke of how the Council the Conference Board of Canada recently announced the Windsor-Essex region will lead the country by GDP growth by capita.
“As all of you know better than I do, that is a sign of prosperity,” Goncalves said.
Since January 2023, Goncalves highlighted that IWE secured a supplier to battery manufacturers. Around 50 employees will be hired. Two weeks ago, a company he could not name yet, was secured that does R&D and prototyping. It will hire around 50 engineers.
He also spoke of IWE’s Business Retention & Expansion department, which helps local companies stay local and grow. It helped facilitate around $152M over the past few years. ‘
The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Centre is a partnership between Windsor-Essex and the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation, and Trade. It is a program anyone can approach who would like to start a business or has an idea for one. Existing businesses can also tap into the resources, get support, and receive training. Representatives will walk those interested in opening a business through the stages. They also offer information about possible grants or opportunities.
Since January 2023, it has consulted with 956 business entrepreneurs and led 14 business walks in downtown areas. These efforts, County Council heard, resulted in 105 new businesses, 93 expansions, and 429 new jobs. Goncalves thanked County Council for its ongoing support.
“We’ve heard you. We are going to do our absolute best to mitigate some of the issues that have come up over the last two or three months. We have been working hard on that.”
Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy said there is no doubt IWE does great work in the region, but it does seem more Windsor-focused.
“I think economic development and investment in Essex County is very different. We are more boutique shops and wineries and eateries, and little boutiques. I don’t know if it is a case of a little too late, but I am glad you are here.”
She has been looking over the IWE minutes. Bondy does not know who is on the Board from the County aside from the Warden of Essex County, Hilda MacDonald. She wondered if more County representation on the IWE Board would help.
When reading the minutes, Bondy noted there are a lot of acronyms, which can be difficult for someone to understand who may want to learn what the Board is doing.
Goncalves noted that eight of the 11 on the Board are from the County. Only three of which work in the County.
“I think we need to do a better job of that,” he said, noting they have tried to get a few individuals from the County on the Board, but they declined. “We need to do better and we need to leverage the mayors and deputy mayors to maybe even help make some suggestions on people they think could be part of that.”
He added at a minimum of the work done though the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Centre is in the County.
“We need to do a better job of relaying that,” Goncalves said, noting he will relay to the new CEO that someone should update County Council every few months.
Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara thanked IWE for the investment that has come into the region from the battery plant to construction jobs.
“We have seen the difference.” He also spoke of the importance of helping small businesses improve and expand. McNamara commended the attention IWE dedicates to the small and medium sized business sectors.
McNamara asked of the anticipation, after the recent American election, in terms of duties and what IWE is doing to help local companies dependent on trade with the US. Goncalves said Americans are much-more likely to implement technology into their companies. AI will change the world over the next three-to four years.
“Companies that do not adopt that will fall further behind and that productivity gap will increase,” he said. It is incumbent on IWE to work with local companies on improving productivity levels, which will make them more competitive in the international market.
Gordon Orr, CEO of TWEPI, noted his organization approaches County Council annually to ensure elected officials are informed of its work and provide a forum to ask questions.
Over the past three-years, TWEPI hired a company to conduct a visitor economic impact report. He pointed out that visitor volume in Windsor-Essex has increased 80% since 2021, with 5.6M visitors touring the region in 2023. That was within 2% of levels in 2019. Not pointed out was that there were still pandemic restrictions in 2021.
Visitor spending, he added, grew 109% comparing 2021 to 2023, from $409M to $856M. Of the 5.6M visitors in 2023, the vast majority were from the US, Orr added. Over 11,000 individuals were employed in the tourism industry locally in 2023.
“Our visitor economy is growing stronger each year,” Orr said. “Which is tremendous news.” Hotel occupancy sits at over 70% year-to-date.
TWEPI is governed by an 11-member Board, with LaSalle Mayor Crystal Meloche as the Chairperson. In speaking to the upcoming budget deliberations, Orr said TWEPI was seeking a status-quo contribution from County Council.
McNamara thanked TWEPI for promoting the area to the world.