The economic development revolution
I have to present a proposed econmic development plan to a smallish Ontario municipality in a couple of weeks. I was developing the Powerpoint deck recently and even I was a bit surprised by the content. Along with the usual stuff – making sure you have employment lands, developing a stronger community marketing program, etc. in there you will find “ensuring there are enough daycare spaces” and “develop new housing tailored based on household income levels” and “try to improve the quality of high school education in the community”.
It's crazy, I know, but these issues came to the fore when we really dug into what was holding the community back. The labour market participation rate among 25-34 year old women was much lower – likely because of a lack of daycare options. A large share of the jobs on offer were at below average wages – but they were important jobs – so we needed better housing options to attract workers. The high school was half empty even as parents were taking their kids to another community 20 minutes away.
My epiphany on this started a long time ago – maybe 15 years ago – when I started to question the classic economic development roles. It seemed to me they weren’t cutting the mustard any more.
New Brunswick in particular – saw its economy grind essentially to a halt between around 2007 and 2015 or so. Business investment dropped. The workforce actually started to decline. But the folks working in economic development were doing mostly the same stuff.
When I joined the provincial government in 2015 I was on a mission to help get the province back to at least a modest level of economic growth (from 0.5% per year in the lost decade to at least 2.5% or so).
I remember having the conversation with folks in economic development at all levels – municipal, provincial and federal and the responses were mostly the same. Yes, we know that x and y are challenges but that is not part of our mandate.
“Our job is to provide SME funding support.”
“Our job is to convince national and international firms to invest here.”
“Our job is to market and promote our community.”
“We do economic development. There are other departments that are involved in workforce development.”
Then it hit me. Successful economic development now is (and likely always was) about properly identifying the roadblocks to business investment and clearing those roadblocks.
So, the mantra now is simple. Identify the stuff that is holding your community, province or country back and work on that stuff. Sounds simple but in reality, it seems to be really hard.
If there is a smell emanating from a local manufacturing plant that is discouraging people from moving in - getting rid of the stink is economic development. If you are a small town mayor and people wont move in because they have to drive 30 minutes to find a decent place to buy socks - making sure there is a socks store in your community is economic development. If you have increasing crime in your community and it is a barrier to getting people to move in, solving crime is economic development. Housing, daycare, exposing high school students to local career opportunities – all could be economic development depending on your situation.
So, you say, what should a small, under-resourced economic development organization do? Offer daycare services?
No - but you are the one organization in the community or province that is best positioned to identify the roadblocks to business investment, shine a light on those roadblocks and mobilize the departments, agencies, organizations and firms that can address those roadblocks.
Economic development these days is hard but necessary. See yourself at the centre of a large ecosystem of partners that have a role to play. Your job is to provide some ‘core’ services that others do not (such as community promotion) but as important these days is the roadblock identification and mobilizing the folks to get those roadblocks out of the way.