SARAH WILLIAMS

STAFF WRITER

The municipality’s Economic Development Officer, Karen Palmer, gave a report on the state of the local economy during last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting.

The report includes an overview of key sectors, jobs and wages. The average annual wage in the County is 43.5k. It also gives the dollar value of products or services imported into and exported out of the County, and highlights numerous workforce challenges.

Councillor Chris Braney

“Those jobs that remain stable — those sectors that provide the most jobs — are actually not providing well-paying jobs,” noted Ms. Palmer.

Councillor Chris Braney said he’s recently had several small business owners in Wellington contact him with multiple concerns. “I think small-business owners feel, in general, like they want to pack up and go: they are over-regulated, they are communications-poor and they don’t feel they are being supported.”

Councillor Janice Maynard countered Councillor Braney’s point by noting that the hospitality industry has always been precarious, even before the pandemic.

“To the point about the challenges those in the hospitality industry are facing…we have to recognize that industry in particular has a high failure rate, even prior to the pandemic,” she said. “The sky isn’t necessarily falling, though, because that is an industry where if there are two out there are two in, so to speak.”

The report directs staff to conduct a Business Retention and Expansion Survey, with results to come to council in late 2023.

The survey has been in the works for a while. “I think you might have heard some of this on the campaign trail,” noted Ms. Palmer. “We’ve heard it during the 10-year consultations and Thrive discussions: people are very interested in economic diversification and what the economic future looks like, how to create meaningful year-round employment for people and how to move beyond agriculture and tourism.”

The survey, which runs May 30^th to June 30^th, will shed light on the local business community as well as how best to support the local economy.  It will capture employee demographics and compensation, challenges with technology, causes of difficulties with employee attraction or retention, transit use, plans for expansion, reduction, or sale of a business, the availability and affordability of appropriate commercial space, and levels of debt post-Covid.

The survey will also contain questions about student workers, and mentorships/apprenticeships.

Sectors targeted include: agriculture; health services; hospitality; manufacturing; professional services; retail; and the trades and construction industry.

“There are key things that contribute to the economic health of our community, such as access to transit, the availability of year-round employment in a range of sectors, and whether the liveable wage rate for Eastern Ontario, as determined by Living Wage Ontario, is really liveable in Prince Edward County,” said Ms. Palmer.

The report notes that Council has made great strides in establishing links and networks with anchor institutions such as Loyalist College and Base 31.

Findings from the survey will help create the future economic development plan.