2023-2027 Economic Development Strategy
The Township of Oro-Medonte last undertook an economic development strategic planning exercise in 2017.
Since then, the Township has made significant progress, including supporting large business investments,
obtaining commitments from third-party providers for infrastructure development, in particular high-speed
internet, and completing several enabling strategies such as the Employment Land Strategy and Tourism
Destination Action Plan. The significant progress was also accompanied by challenges, such as the biggest
economic shock in recent history caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, whose effects on supply chains and
labour were far-reaching. While many of the goals, objectives, and actions from the 2017 plan remain
relevant, given the significant change experienced since that plan was developed, it was critical to revisit the
strategy to ensure its content remains focused on the evolving needs of the municipality.
In order to effectively update the strategic plan and identify current issues, a community survey, and industry
focus groups were conducted. Census data and a review of existing relevant documents and strategies were
also considered in the development of this updated economic development strategy. These include the
Employment Land Strategy and Tourism Destination Action Plan, whose actions have been incorporated in
the updated economic development strategy. The following report summarizes key findings from the data,
and highlights the updated goals, objectives, and actions proposed for 2023-2027.
Our Vision for Economic Development
The Township of Oro-Medonte will use a balanced growth approach to economic development, focused on growing and attracting business, tourism development, and residential growth.
Strategic Goals
Strategic Goal 1: Infrastructure
Objective 1: Explore mechanisms and best practices of how to facilitate third-party infrastructure development, where required and a business case exists.
Proposed Actions:
- Identify and assess current to 10-year prediction
of infrastructure needs for future development.
- Conduct a thorough environmental scan and
evaluation of best practices in infrastructure
development for relevant utilities identified in the
above action, including current trends, financing,
partnerships, the role of government, and the role
of the private sector. Once completed a report with
recommendations should be prepared for Council.
- Identify and continue to engage potential partners
to monitor, advocate for, and support expansion
of infrastructure where required.
- Maintain a map of existing natural gas coverage and
identify areas of priority for expansion of services.
- Remain current on funding opportunities related to
infrastructure expansion in priority areas.
- Apply for funding opportunities for infrastructure
development where possible and relevant.
- Provide support for infrastructure development
applications that benefit the Township.
- Evaluate need and required resources for Township
to invest in service expansion where relevant and
feasible.
- Continue to monitor the provision of high-speed
internet in the Township to ensure coverage
commitments are realized and resident and
business concerns are addressed.
- Continue to engage potential partners such as the
South Western Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT)
and the County of Simcoe to encourage expansion
of high-speed internet services.
Objective 2: Advocate to other levels of government and the private sector for enhanced provision of required infrastructure from 10-year vision.
Proposed Actions:
- Conduct a thorough environmental scan and
evaluation of best practices in municipal advocacy
tactics related to strategic infrastructure needs.
- Select the best practice with the highest chance
of implementation success and report to Council.
- Identify and continue to engage a range of partners
to collaboratively advocate for the expansion of
needed infrastructure services.
Strategic Goal 2: Tourism Development
Objective 1: Build the case for tourism growth and management in Oro-Medonte.
Proposed Actions:
- Formalize working relationship with key
tourism organizations.
- Establish a Tourism Working Group/
Subcommittee of Economic Development
(Team Oro-Medonte) Roundtable to advise
implementation of the Tourism Destination
Action Plan and inform future tourism work.
- Design, develop, and deliver a tourism awareness
and ambassador program that targets both
industry and residents.
- Facilitate identification and sharing of good
news stories about tourism assets & benefits
Objective 2: Increase knowledge and understanding about tourism in Oro-Medonte
Proposed Actions:
- Collect, analyze, and share data about visitors
to Oro-Medonte through industry and partner
support.
- Enhance communications with other Township
departments to identify and share tourism
information.
- Perform bi-annual industry temperature check.
- Work with partners and Team Oro-Medonte to
evolve, finalize and distribute an organizational role
& responsibilities information sheet.
- Create infographics about tourism in Oro-Medonte.
- Conduct research to identify viable tourism
transportation solutions for Oro-Medonte.
- Work with partners to support industry
networking and learning opportunities.
Objective 3: Support and positively influence the development of new and existing four-season tourism products in the Township.
Proposed Actions:
- Create a prospectus for potential investors in
Oro-Medonte as a tourism destination, based on
existing tourism needs/gaps.
- Support community-based opportunities to activate
arts, cultural and heritage assets.
- Maintain and expand partnerships related to tourism
marketing and product development at the local and
regional levels.
- Work with partners to provide packaging support for
local and regional tourism operators, where feasible
and relevant, to increase overnight tourism visits.
- Work with partners to implement the tourism
communications plan when completed to promote
the Township’s tourism assets outside of the
municipality.
- Develop responsible visitation guidelines and related communications.
Objective 4: Maintain and enhance tourism/recreational infrastructure in the Township to ensure long-term sustainability of assets.
Proposed Actions:
- Work collaboratively with internal partners to ensure
on-going consultation with the community and key
stakeholders regarding recreational and tourism
asset management to ensure on-going sustainability
of the sector and assets.
- Assess and support alignments between the Tourism
Gap Analysis and Parks and Recreation Master Plan
to maintain and/or expand tourism/recreational
assets.
- Work collaboratively to implement the Wayfinding
Strategy.
- Explore and implement ways to connect natural
tourism/recreational assets to spending
opportunities in the Township.
Objective 5: Support the development and enhancement of communications to visitors in Oro-Medonte.
Proposed Actions:
- Ensure that Oro-Medonte and its tourism assets are
adequately represented in partners’ visitor-facing
resources (e.g., visitor-facing websites).
- Identify and clearly communicate appropriate lake
access, including beaches, and supporting infrastructure.
- Develop responsible visitation guidelines for destination marketing activities to facilitate more respectful
tourism visitation
Strategic Goal 3: Support Business Environment
Objective 1: Provide Township-based businesses with support and connections to regional resources to start, maintain, and grow their business.
Proposed Actions:
- Update and maintain economic development
pages on the Township website to provide key
information to incoming and existing businesses and
workforce.
- Implement communication strategy to share
information and opportunities with the business
community.
- Maintain and enhance the Township’s partnership
with local and regional business development
organizations.
- Participate with partners to develop and deliver
resources to the business community, including
supporting the attraction and retention of
workforce.
- Create a resource for businesses to support
tourism and its growth in Oro-Medonte.
Objective 2: Work with partners to alleviate workforce shortages now and into the future.
Proposed Actions: - Advocate for regulations at all levels that support
the development of affordable and attainable
housing in Oro-Medonte.
- Advocate for employee-centric transportation
solutions when public and private partners are
expanding transit options.
- Work with partners to promote local career
opportunities to local students.
Objective 3: Support the long-term sustainability of the agricultural sector.
Proposed Actions:
- Establish a committee to support the development
of planning policy and advocacy related to the
protection of agricultural land.
- Support advocacy efforts and implementation,
if relevant, related to the committee’s work.
- Explore mechanisms to better facilitate on-farm
diversification and value-added activities for the
agricultural sector.
- Continue to recognize and facilitate opportunities
for agricultural-related industrial and commercial
uses permitted in agricultural areas subject to O.P.
policies and, where applicable, the Guidelines on
Permitted Uses in Ontario’s Prime Agricultural Areas.
Strategic Goal 4: Address Barriers to Sustainable Development
Objective 1: Engage with other levels of government to advocate for policies and support that will enable and encourage private investment.
Proposed Actions:
- Consult with key stakeholders and leverage existing
research to understand and monitor the full scope
of potential barriers to investing in Oro-Medonte,
including local, regional, provincial, and national
issues of concern.
- Identify potential partners to align with in both the
public and private sectors to develop solutions to
identified barriers and implement, where possible.
- Advocate for policy changes that address identified
barriers where relevant.
- Continue to work with internal departments to
ensure Township employment lands and the needs
of businesses are accommodated in updated
municipal plans (Official Plans, Zoning By-Laws,
Master Plans) in accordance with Provincial and
or County policies.
Objective 2: Facilitate the development of industrial, private recreation and commercial zoned lands and buildings.
Proposed Actions:
- Support the update of the zoning by-law to align with
O.P. mapping and policies. Specifically, the lands
zoned for employment should align with those lands
designated for employment in the Township’s O.P.
- Support the implementation of the Public Realm
and Urban Design recommendations from the
Craighurst Secondary Plan. Explore the development
of a related placemaking strategy, if feasible.
- Work with the County to examine the current and
long-term future use of the L.S.R.A. airport lands,
including surrounding lands and consider the overall
economic benefit of the L.S.R.A. to the County and
the Township, and the role of the airport as a
significant asset to enhance regional economic
development potential.
- Continue to work closely with the County and
Province to coordinate plans for development of
the new employment lands, as identified in the
Employment Lands Strategy.
- Maintain a complete map of industrial and
commercial zoned plots of land and monitor the
status of available land on an on-going basis.
Accuracy should be reviewed on an annual basis.
- Engage in scheduled check-ins (e.g. annually) with
landowners of current large parcels (e.g. over 5 ha)
within and surrounding existing Employment Areas,
as identified in the Employment Land Strategy, to
assess interest in developing the lands and assessing
feasibility of development or redevelopment. Within
the check-in program, explore public-private
partnerships to encourage intensification and infill
development opportunities within employment
lands.
- Support the development of a master servicing plan
for Oro Centre.
- Support strategic commercial development in
identified growth areas that seek to preserve and
enhance Oro-Medonte’s rural character, including
exploring the development of Community
Improvement Plan(s), where relevant.
- Support to expansion plans of existing Oro-Medonte
businesses.
- Consider improving the marketability and feasibility
of developing vacant employment lands by
undertaking necessary pre-screening studies and
assessments at the expense of the Township.
These may include but are not limited to: servicing
strategies, environmental studies, water protection
requirements, or archaeological assessment studies.
The Township may make use of provincial programs
such as the Investment Ready Certified Site
Designation for achieving this.
Objective 3: Enhance the Township's readiness to attract and retain new investment.
Proposed Actions:
- Update and maintain the Community Profile
with relevant information for new and existing
businesses.
- Consider a range of promotional tools to inform
prospective industries about Oro-Medonte and its
communities. These could include social media
campaigns or direct marketing campaigns to speak
with existing and interested businesses, and real
estate network connections.
- Work with landowners and developers to
understand status of their land and if they want
investment attraction assistance from
Oro-Medonte. Identify specific community needs,
target markets, and sectors in preparation for
when land or buildings become available. This
may include a retail/service-gap analysis, if relevant.
- Work with regional partners to develop and
implement an investment attraction strategy for
existing land and building opportunities.
- Review municipal By-laws and zoning to facilitate
home-based businesses.
- Market home-based business opportunities.
Objective 4: Become a resource hub to guide businesses through Township processes.
Proposed Actions:
- Support the development and implementation
of an on-going feedback mechanism for businesses
to assess municipal processes.
- Continue to enhance relationship between
internal departments economic development by
formalizing interaction/communication process
between departments.
- Work with Planning and Building staff to create
a guide to planning and development processes.
- Understand the challenges businesses have with
municipal processes.
- Research best practices on developing a ‘concierge
service’ to guide businesses through internal
processes.
- Collaborate with internal departments to develop
the concierge service that will assist businesses
and streamline processes.
- Communicate the concierge service to the business
community.
Objective 5: As per the Employment Land Strategy, undertake a program that supports increased intensification in underutilized employment lands.
Proposed Actions:
- Explore opportunities for infill and redevelopment
in mature industrial areas.
- Following check in calls with landowners, respond to
interested developers or employers to discuss any
suitable fits for identified opportunities.
- Explore opportunities to establish incubator
facilities to promote and encourage the development
of start-up industries, particularly related to
knowledge-based sectors and other export-based
emerging industry clusters.
For more information about the Township’s economic development strategy and activities, please email the Township’s Economic Development staff at
business@oro-medonte.ca or call (705) 487-2171.