Economic Development and Tourism Advisory Committee

0:04Okay, if not, we'll move on to the approval of the minutes they were circulated as an

0:10attachment earlier before this meeting.

0:15Would anyone like to move to approve the minutes of our June 10th meeting?

0:21Anu, thank you very much.

0:25And would someone like to second it, please?

0:28Excellent.

0:29Thank you.

0:30Sorry.

0:31Dennis.

0:32Dennis?

0:33Thank you, Dennis.

0:34So, all in favor?

0:37Pass.

0:41To consent agenda.

0:44Do we have items for our consent agenda?

0:46I'm not sure what that means.

0:49Today we do not have any consent agenda.

0:51Okay.

0:52Yeah, thank you.

0:53So, we can skip right over that.

0:56Three committee items.

0:59Is that the agenda?

1:01Or is that read out the title of each item?

1:04There's delegates to speak.

1:07Today we have the orientation and workshop and would be introduced and presented by Christine

1:12and Alex.

1:13So, you may invite them to present.

1:16Thank you.

1:17Okay.

1:18Then at this time, I would like to invite our presenters to lead us through the edTAC

1:27orientation and workshop.

1:29So, I'm going to go ahead and introduce ourselves.

1:38Yeah, so I will just say, so maybe when you address this already, so there are no motions

1:49associated with this report unless you would like to make one, but mostly it's an informational

1:53session to just get us all caught up on where we're kind of at in our strategy as well as

1:59how we kind of fit into the city strategy overall.

2:03And that's kind of what we're doing here today is, so Winnie gave like the policy heavy introduction

2:10last meeting and then now we're getting more specific into economic development in tourism

2:14than what we do.

2:16But Christine.

2:18Yes, and I'm sorry for missing the last meeting, but my name is Christine Chapman.

2:22I am the manager of economic development.

2:26And also this is an opportunity for you to just ask any questions, just general questions

2:30about the work that we do, even outside of sort of the realm of this presentation.

2:36If there's any burning questions, we're here to answer.

2:40So, so Alex is I'm going to be talking for the majority of the end part of this presentation.

2:47So I'm going to hand it back over to Alex to do some intro.

2:52Perfect. So, OK, so we just kind of wanted to show you folks kind of the structure of

2:57economic development and tourism at the management level.

3:01So our general manager of economic development and tourism is James Goodrum.

3:04He's actually at council currently.

3:06So he couldn't be here today to say hi, but you will see him in future meetings, I'm sure.

3:12And then of course, there is Christine with economic development.

3:15I'm Alex, so I'm tourism and destination development.

3:18So those are those are the two title departments.

3:23So economic development and tourism.

3:24But we also have a Gulf Junction Railway, and that's led by Les Petrosy,

3:29and he has a team of two with him as well.

3:32And we also have downtown revitalization, which is Stacey Laughlin,

3:35and they actually have a council report today.

3:39So they're at council this afternoon.

3:42And then Luke Jefferson's in charge of strategic real estate division.

3:46So those are kind of the five core, we call them divisions that report into a department

3:53and we're part of the infrastructure development and environment service area.

4:07So with the revitalized advisory committee of council framework,

4:11we're really focusing on strategic and policy level recommendations from committees,

4:18which when you went over last meeting as well.

4:21So we just wanted to highlight where we're kind of out with our strategic plan.

4:25So the corporate strategic plan is future Gulf,

4:28and that plan is running is encompasses essentially the current council term.

4:34So 2024 to 2027.

4:37We are the leaders of the lead department on the objective to grow Gulf's economy.

4:42This is the icon here for the people and economy piece.

4:47And we do this largely by actioning economic development and tourism strategy,

4:51which we will talk a little bit more about while a lot more about.

4:55That's the bulk of the meeting.

4:57And so there's lots of actions that are attributed to that

5:01and goals that we have that will lead into this.

5:04But we also are strong advocates for creating a welcoming place for everyone in our downtown,

5:11which is another one of our corporate objectives.

5:14So and then we also contribute to other areas of the strategy

5:17by bringing the business voice to projects and policies across the organization.

5:20So we have an environmental or an environment pillar.

5:25We have a foundations pillar, and then we also have a like a city building pillar.

5:32So as policies and projects come forward through these other pillars

5:39and through other departments, we'll be inviting them to come and speak with us as well

5:44and to engage with you folks to hear from that from you

5:51and what you think about those policies.

5:53So that's kind of how it all, all the strategy kind of fits in.

5:59And so as we go through the economic development and tourism strategy

6:03that Christine will largely speak to, there are six key goals.

6:10But when we passed that strategy, we were a smaller department.

6:15And since we passed the strategy, we have some new divisions,

6:19namely downtown revitalization and our strategic real estate function.

6:23So there are some new strategic priorities or some of our work kind of falls under this as well.

6:29So those prior priorities are largely downtown renewal and intensification of wealth,

6:36employment lands and development, housing and talent attraction.

6:40We have our business intelligence and our support services.

6:44And then we also have destination development and visitor spending.

6:48So all our, all of our key activities kind of fall into these key buckets,

6:52as well as resonating with the goals in the actual strategy.

6:57And now it's you.

6:58Okay. So thank you, Alex.

7:02So the economic development and tourism strategy was approved by council in 2022.

7:07It's a five year plan.

7:10And as we know, this has not been a typical five years looking back in terms of,

7:17in terms of economic environment, stability, those types of things, leadership,

7:24and there's been a number of elections in play as well.

7:27So this is sort of one of those things where you set a strategy,

7:30we do have to be sort of nimble in terms of its application.

7:35So what we're going to do essentially is talk about, you know,

7:39the strategy itself, introduce you to each one of the goals of the strategy

7:44and then talk about what the priorities were set back in 2022.

7:49And then give you a sense as to what has been completed already.

7:53And then also what still is to be completed.

7:57And given the fact that it's 2025 and the strategy ends in 2026,

8:02we've actually got a lot of work under our belt that we're very proud of,

8:05but still lots to do.

8:07We are looking at revamping this strategy in one shape or form,

8:11but we're not entirely sure what that looks like as of yet.

8:14But certainly we will make sure that this group is tapped into that work in the future.

8:19So the strategy has Alex noted has six goals,

8:23and I'm just going to go through each one of the goals.

8:26I think what would be easiest is if you, if we just held all the questions to the end,

8:32there is a copy of the strategy.

8:34We only have three left actually, which is great.

8:38But if you wanted to either make notes or just remind yourself throughout,

8:43that's totally fine.

8:44I think just wrapping up, and we can always go back in the slides.

8:47That's not it.

8:48I'll share a link to it in the chat too for those online.

8:52Okay. So goal number one.

8:56So goal one is around expanding and supporting existing businesses.

9:01This is what we refer to as business retention and expansion.

9:07And you will hear us refer to that in the future as BR&E.

9:11So when we're talking about BR&E, we're talking business retention expansion.

9:14Essentially this means how are we supporting existing businesses here in our community

9:18to expand and grow?

9:20And a lot of that is around improving our understanding of what our industry cluster

9:26assets are here.

9:28And we can speak a little bit about, we do use a little bit of economic development jargon

9:32throughout.

9:33So if there's any clarification, we can certainly clear that up.

9:37But industry clusters, we better understand what our assets are to leverage federal

9:44and provincial programming.

9:45So a lot of the programming, and when I say programming, to big lead in funding,

9:50exists at the provincial and federal levels.

9:52So how do we leverage that to support the work on the ground for our existing businesses?

9:59So the priorities related to goal one are implementing formalized business retention,

10:06business expansion and support program,

10:10support industry led tourism product development,

10:14and then build awareness of industry cluster support in our decision making.

10:18There are ways in which municipality can make decisions that help to support business development.

10:25So looking at what we have completed and what work is currently underway.

10:30So in 2022, we launched the employment, the wealth employment survey.

10:37And this was conducted, it was launched in 2022, but it's conducted every year for the first three

10:43years. And we've now moved to every other year now that we have a pretty sufficient

10:47database built up based on the results of that survey.

10:51This is a survey of all brick and mortar businesses within our community.

10:56We have a pretty robust database as it stands now, given the results of this survey.

11:04But essentially, it allows us to ask some pretty boilerplate questions of businesses

11:09to gain a better understanding of what they are doing at the location,

11:15as well as any contact information that we can gather, should we need to reach out to you

11:20for whatever reason associated potentially with funding or perhaps impacts that may be

11:25happening, i.e. construction, those types of things. And it's been really helpful to take

11:29that information and feed it to other departments as well to help them inform their work.

11:36The business visitation programs of this last year was the first year for this.

11:41So this is not a door-to-door survey. This is a sit-down with businesses targeted

11:47strategically at the beginning of the year to go on a deeper dive, specifically with decision makers

11:54at the business related to the operations of their business, future expansions,

11:59connection with funding, those types of things.

12:02So we have exceeded our targets in the first year for that program. We had wanted to reach out to

12:0810 businesses. I believe we landed around 15. This year, we are ramping that up a little bit more,

12:15given the fact that there are some obviously impacts of tariffs. So we have ramped that up this year

12:22and have had some really good success, and that will be a program that continues.

12:27And then, Alex, do you want to speak to the tourism funding program?

12:30Yeah, for sure. So we'll talk a little bit more in goal five about some of the destination

12:36development work. But one of our major success milestones for tourism was when we launched

12:42our funding programs last summer. And those funding programs are tied to that tourism

12:50product development goal or action within this goal, where we're really trying to

12:56incent and invest in experiences that already exist or new enhancements. So I will

13:04I'll show the beer bus here. So we provide funding to initiatives like the beer bus that

13:10have demonstrated visitor draw. And then we have also invested in things like the the new thrift map.

13:17So something that's already been in the community, investing in enhancement, whereas

13:24investing in something like the thrift map that never existed before, but united all of the

13:29thrift and consignment stores in Guelph was a really exciting new project that came out of that.

13:34So that's what we're doing when it comes to tourism product development. That's one piece of the

13:40tourism product development where we're investing directly into the community. And I was actually

13:44I'm so proud to say that we actually put 96,000 into the community in 2024 to advance tourism

13:51goals that way. And we're expecting more in 2025. So those are the tourism funding programs.

13:58And the next one is also. Oh, and then the next one's under. Okay, so yeah, so the next thing that

14:04we have going is we're going to be developing or we have developed and we're actually going to be

14:09sending out the invites soon. Some industry working groups for tourism. So we're now referring to it

14:16as the tourism network and sorry, the tourism partnership table and then

14:22communities of practice. So we'll be focusing in on some of our really well defined cluster assets.

14:28So our craft culinary, our attractions, our, or sorry, our accommodations, so our hotel,

14:36hoteliers will be doing a table for attractions and then as well as event and sport hosting,

14:44where we're going to be bringing folks around to represent those sectors to really advance goals.

14:54Sorry, our goal of encouraging folks to work together and bring more new products online or to

15:01take what's already in existence in individual businesses and bring them together into things

15:07like trails and packages that help drive those overnight stays. So we're really focusing on

15:13building collaboration and building the network and making those connections together. So those

15:20will launch later this year and then everything will get fully underway in 2026. Great. Okay,

15:28work underway this year as well. Under goal one for my team is related to looking at our economic

15:37clusters and doing a little an update in terms of their existing status. So what I mean by that

15:45is economic cluster is a, it's a, it's a cluster theory is something related to growing economies

15:54in terms of you have in some cases a geographic or perhaps a talent competitive advantage against

16:03other, maybe not against, but in comparison to other communities. So the idea in cluster growth

16:13is doubling down on those areas. You already have competitive advantage as well as looking at potential

16:20new clusters that will be growing and coming up in your community. So as an example in Guelph,

16:27and we have an identified ag innovation cluster, we have cluster assets through the university,

16:33but also government assets and those types of things. As an example, so essentially what this

16:40research project is going to be doing is sort of a, we have historically had a lot of,

16:51a lot of information to help support our understanding of what clusters exist here

16:55in our community. And at a high level, yes, we do know. However, what this research is going to do

17:02is just take it a little bit deeper and do some very specific SWAT analysis on each one of those

17:10clusters. So what is our strengths? What is our weaknesses? What are some opportunities within

17:14our communities? Seeing that you may even do for your own businesses, right? And so we're going to

17:21be looking at each one of the clusters and that will help us better understand where it wealth

17:27has value propositions we can put on the table for investment, as well as expansion within our

17:34community. And I speak much more about that through our afterword or what have you. So that's

17:40underway this year. So you can see related to business retention and expansion. A lot of it is

17:45about intelligence gathering, better understanding what business needs are, and then matching them

17:52with supports either through funding through the municipality or elsewise. And so that's

17:57encompasses goal one. Goal two. So on the other side, we have attracting targeted investment. Again,

18:08go back to sort of those industry clusters in terms of we're looking to target and attract

18:15those businesses and business supports that help to grow those clusters in our community.

18:20So when we talk about attracting investment in a targeted way, that's what we're talking about.

18:27We're not talking about sort of a broad spectrum. Well, absolutely, we serve any business that comes

18:34through our door, but we talk about proactively trying to attract businesses. We are being very

18:40targeted about it. Okay. So the priorities under attracting targeted investment are, as I noted,

18:46proactively targeting lead generation activities, strategically marketing wealth industry clusters,

18:53leveraging the wealth junction railway as a way to grow city revenues, and then also developing a

19:02sport group and conference tourism plan. So priorities related to investment.

19:09Looking at some of the things we have completed, so there is the sport and culture tourism strategies.

19:16Alex, maybe you wanted to put some background on that. Yeah. So in 2022, we got funding from

19:23the federal government through a tourism recovery fund, essentially. 2022, obviously,

19:31during the pandemic still to kind of evaluate the sport and culture tourism opportunities.

19:39A lot came out of that work that kind of said that we had a lot of internal policy work to do

19:48to address opportunities that could bring sport in. But the culture piece of this actually

19:58supported the culture plan called culture every day, everywhere, everyone, 2030. So it's that

20:09this was a partnership between tourism and museums and culture, which is obviously out of the museum.

20:16But that the culture plan is fully realized for 2030. But it did bring forward our event and

20:24meeting pitch package, which we did launch in 2024, which is kind of the second or the third

20:31bullet point there. And that's really targeting when we talk about investment attraction and

20:37tourism. Yes, it's trying to get the next zoo in Guelph. We're not going to get a zoo in Guelph,

20:44but it might be an attraction. But really when it comes to Guelph and the land assets that we

20:52have available and that sort of thing, when we talk about investment attraction, we're really

20:57talking about events and meetings. And what we're trying to do is get more conferences, meetings,

21:05you know, when you folks host your colleagues from within a larger company or maybe within a

21:12larger ecosystem, depending on where your business is. That's where we want to see coming in,

21:19because usually those types of events are tied to overnight stays at our hotels, which brings in

21:26more municipal accommodation tax, which allows us to keep investing in tourism. So that's where

21:31we're at. But then the event package also, or the event portion of this, is also to attract larger

21:38events, sporting events like the Curling Grand Slam that was here in early January,

21:43and bringing those kinds of things into Guelph, or at least supporting that picking Guelph as their

21:50next location. Okay, so the other item under the highlights there is the vacant employment land

21:59inventory. So this was created in 2024. It's internal facing. And what this allows us to do is

22:06better understand what existing employment land there is and at what stage of market readiness

22:11it is at. There are some constraints related to employment land while it is in various stages

22:22of market readiness. And when I say market readiness, I mean ability to put shovels in the ground

22:28for building development. So this was an attempt to try to get a better handle on

22:36what lands we actually have to sell. So for attracting targeted investment, what do we have

22:41on the table to actually put on offer? And so this is very much driven by private land ownership.

22:53So this year what we're doing is we're reaching out to private landowners and finding out where

22:58they are at in terms of their own, the marketability of their land. In some cases, they may have no

23:05interest in selling. In some cases, they may have interest in selling. And what we're trying to do

23:09is trying to hold their hand to get it to a marketable state. So that is what's been completed.

23:19And then I think what I'll do is I'll jump into the other two and then hand it back over to you,

23:25Alex. So the other work that is underway right now is, well, this year will be the development of

23:32cluster and sector marketing materials. So as I noted before, we're looking to get sort of those

23:38proof points related to our value propositions for cluster development. And the next stage then is

23:44developing the messaging and actually developing some materials. We have materials, we absolutely

23:50do, but they are a little bit inspired. They do need to be updated in sort of a post-COVID

23:56reality. So that's work that we're undertaking this year. And in addition to that, it was noted we

24:04did some research back in 2019 related to some of our online presence. And it was noted that

24:13we need to start focusing some attention on developing an investment attraction website.

24:18And that sits outside sort of the Guelph.ca, not abandoning the Guelph.ca. We'll always have a

24:25presence there, but in terms of investment attraction specifically, having sort of a

24:30micro-site or a separate site. So planning will start for that this year, and then we're expecting

24:35to launch that in early 2026. And then the destination brand and marketing strategy.

24:42Yeah. So just kind of we're taking that event and meeting pitch package, which is a formalized

24:49document or a published document. And we're using that as kind of the jumping off point for

24:56our marketing strategy for events, as well as investment attraction initiatives. So

25:00the marketing strategy looks like strategic ad placement in trade publications that target

25:05meeting and event planners and that sort of thing. And then when it comes to our investment

25:10attraction events, so we participate in the Canadian Meetings Events Expo, which is like the

25:17largest gathering of event planners in Canada to make those connections. So that happened that

25:22it was the first time we did it last year, and we are doing it again this year. And it was great.

25:29People were so excited to see Guelph. Everybody loves Guelph. Can you believe it? And then this

25:35year we're also doing a pop-up and an activation at the Canadian Society for Association Executives,

25:44which again is another one of those great events that kind of happen more in the meetings and

25:49event space and to attract associations to come to Guelph and have their membership meetings in

25:56Guelph. Hi to those who are running today. Okay, so goal three is around support for

26:05entrepreneurs. So a lot of the organizations that support directly to entrepreneurs and

26:14small businesses exist outside of the municipality. And that expertise lies with those

26:20organizations. And so this is about calling out the importance of and the important role of those

26:26organizations and helping to support entrepreneurs in our community. So essentially that's, you

26:33know, continuing to support entrepreneurs' small businesses, small types, including home-based

26:37businesses, which of course is yet another sort of change in terms of priority from before COVID to

26:46now. Priorities within this are partnering with those organizations and then also putting some

26:55effort towards increasing the profile of by local in Guelph and then also celebrating those

27:05successes of a diverse entrepreneur pool that we have in our community.

27:12So highlights. So we do provide, we have contribution agreements with some of those partner

27:19organizations that do that work. So essentially flowing funding to those organizations to allow

27:26them to be strong and to make our, to help our businesses continue to thrive. So we, in the last

27:36three years, we have signed into three partnership agreements. We did work with the Career Education

27:44Council related to a pilot project related to, it's called Youth Force. And this was meetings

27:51with businesses to help them better understand how to integrate youth into their, into their

27:59workplaces and some of the supports, like co-op programs that are available and making those

28:07connections. We have, so WellShops is a website that supports locally grown businesses and it was

28:18developed through COVID, but since then we have invested on updating that website. And so that

28:26was launched last year and we will continue to support driving, driving attention to that website.

28:35I encourage everybody to check it out. So that was a revamp of that website last year.

28:40And then we also have ongoing sponsorships. So you'll see the investing wealth and the city of

28:45Guelph logo is at various events that support small businesses. So we're kind of way. So again,

28:52I noted the WellShops, we do have a regular ongoing now shop local holiday campaign that launches

29:01on Black Friday. And essentially the push is to buy three of five of your gifts,

29:09wiggling instead of just, just online. And so that's a regular campaign that's ongoing, but we did

29:17put some additional campaign workout this spring related to shopping local given tariff response.

29:26And now you do have to say though that we have had some reduced resources in this area. So some of

29:34the, if you do look at each one of the action items, we have, we haven't been able to fully implement

29:41them. And of course, continued partner funding is obviously based on budget.

29:50Go for advancing talent attraction and skill development when we go out and we speak with

29:55businesses. And I'm sure those of you that own businesses and not for profits are impacted with

30:03the attraction of skilled labor. And so that takes it's a broad scope of players in this space.

30:14And it does take a lot of coordination. So it is definitely on our radar. And how we've addressed

30:25it in the strategy is really sort of from a, you can think of it from a supply side and a demand

30:31side. So working with our working with our workforce development organizations, again,

30:38that's a broad scope of folks. So we're talking about, you know, employment Ontario workforce

30:43planning board, our universities, our colleges, all of those types of organizations. And better

30:50understanding what is available from a supply side, and then also engaging the private sector from the

30:56demand side and better understanding what the needs are, and trying to make those connections as

31:00best as possible. So you'll see the priorities unified the workforce development organizations

31:06and then engage the private sector with education and workforce leaders to collaborate and address

31:12immediate and then long term workforce needs. So highlights. Again, working with the Career

31:19Education Council on the wealth works job fair. So we did three years of that. This was a

31:25coordination coordinating with the school boards. So bringing those students that were

31:32graduating from high school, but not entering the work or sorry, not entering post secondary

31:37education. So getting local employers out there and making those connections as well as opening

31:45that up more broadly to all folks is extremely successful. We typically had over 60,

31:5160 employers out and well, hundreds of students and folks coming through. So that was a successful

32:01program. Also working with Conestoga related to their downtown wealth campus.

32:08We also worked with Career Education Council on sort of an employer self evaluation scorecard. So

32:13how ready is your workplace in hiring youth? And

32:19and then the other parts around networking with tourism operators. So I'm going to speak to that.

32:26Yeah, so this is largely so similarly to our communities of practice that I spoke to

32:33previously. So that's one aspect of it in terms of networking and professional development.

32:38But every year for the past three years, we have been running a series of tourism workshops or

32:45workshops that are typically oriented towards tourism operators. So that's either for profit or

32:50not for profit organizations in this space, open to whoever feels they apply. And they've been one

32:57of our most successful programs. So I think this past year we we had over 35 unique businesses or

33:06people represented. So which is which is really great for for our programming. And it really

33:13focuses around the skills that our operators have expressed that they would like to develop or

33:21information that they would like to develop. So last year we actually one of the fan favorites was

33:28a two day tourism product workshop, where we actually took people around to different products

33:34both in Guelph and in Wellington County. And then we had a full day workshop with someone whose

33:40expertise is actually in developing tourism product. And when it comes to tourism product,

33:47what I what I mean when I say that is experiences that would draw people from out of their hometown

33:54into Guelph because something we offer here is unique and special and different. So so that was

34:01a great one. And then this year we really focused on networking and on marketing skills and business

34:09planning. And actually, Christelle was one of our presenters and helped walk through business

34:15planning for new products, not just business plan for a full business. But what happens when you

34:20introduce something new and really focusing on marketing. So that's what we try and do. We try

34:26and build that capacity because we also recognize that most of our tourism operators are sole

34:31proprietors or not for profits with volunteer labor. So take so paying for professional development

34:38is often a barrier to kind of growing that capacity. So we try and offer that in our programming.

34:45Yeah. So we're going away. We do as you see we've had we have definitely some wins in this area.

34:53However, when we did come together as a broader department, we did undergo a bit of a shift in

34:59terms of resources. And the resources that were previously focused, dedicated to sort of this

35:08this goal of the strategy has really shifted to the needs of the downtown as a priority for the

35:14overall department, which makes a lot of sense. But it does mean that we can't be as proactive in

35:22the spaces we would like to be. However, we're definitely still reactive. So we still work with

35:27our partners as opportunities come along to help advance sort of this this goal. However, we just

35:33can't be as proactive about it as as it's as we noted in 2022. Okay. Over to tourism.

35:44Yeah. So goal five is really the tourism goal. So although tourism is laced throughout,

35:51this is our so everything that we do as tourism is really about building a must see visitor

35:57destination in Ontario. So it feels so long ago, but our key priority here was implementing the

36:06municipal accommodation tax. And we did that in 2022 through council, of course. And so the

36:13municipal accommodation tax is a provincially, let's call it, I don't want to call it legislated,

36:19because it's not legislated, but it's a optional tax that a municipality can charge on room nights

36:28at a hotels for any say 30 day or less and sorry, hotels, been breakfast, hotels, and short term

36:36rentals. So like Airbnb and the RVOs, verbose. So municipal accommodation tax gives us a funding

36:44source that is not tax levy, so taxpayer supported, and is instead a tax paid by visitors to help us

36:53both invest, but also maintain tourism infrastructure, and then invest in our community and the

36:59tourism products that exist here, or that we're growing. So those funding streams that I spoke

37:05about earlier in our presentation, that was that came from the municipal accommodation tax. So

37:11passing the mat has allowed us to do everything else within this goal. So this goal, sorry,

37:18let me just make sure. Yeah, so our priorities are curating those destination experiences,

37:25and then we're really focused on that infrastructure, like placemaking and wayfinding to enhance the

37:29visitor experience. So we got a lot done in the first three years. So as I said, we passed the

37:38mat, but we also established our DMO. So a DMO is a destination marketing organization,

37:44and our DMO is Destination Marketing Wealth, and they are under the wealth chamber of commerce,

37:49and we work very, very closely together under the umbrella organization name of called tourism.

37:56We also in 2023, this was destination marketing golf actually contracted a destination assessment

38:03and visitor survey to help us kind of realign our goals and our intentions after COVID, and to make

38:12sure that after we passed the strategy that we were still aligned with our direction we were.

38:19We also did some destination enhancement projects in 2023, namely the golf sign,

38:26so it lights up, so the market square. And then we passed the permanent seasonal patio program. So

38:32if you have been downtown and you have seen the patios, that program is actually coordinated

38:37through the tourism department. And then in 2024, we passed the mat administrative policy,

38:45and then the funding programs through that policy as well, which allowed us to launch the funding

38:51programs, and we now have counsel direction on how exactly the mat money gets spent and on what

38:57projects and initiatives. And then similarly to what I spoke to and goal for, our tourism

39:03workshops and network development programming has been ongoing since 2022. And then work underway.

39:09So right now, we are working on our citywide wayfinding strategy, which I'm really excited about,

39:16and we, which is the outcomes of that strategy are going to give us essentially a menu of signs

39:24that we can choose from when we're developing wayfinding projects across the organization

39:29that look and feel like wealth and help people and not just visitors, but residents who are

39:35making non-routine trips find their way around wealth and direct them to kind of hidden gems

39:40and that sort of thing. So the strategy is underway. We have done some, we have done

39:46community engagement around that, and we're expecting to be at council for the approval in

39:502026, but the strategy will come to edTAC before we go to council. So you'll get to see what the

39:57signs will look like and how we plan to implement it. And then we're doing some planning for a

40:04placemaking strategy in 2025 with expected completion in 2026. So I like to describe

40:11placemaking as free, fun, and friendly projects that invite people to participate in wealth as a

40:19place. So think of things that, you know, like public art or, you know, funky playgrounds or

40:28funky street furniture that encourage people to linger and to explore. So that's kind of what

40:34placemaking is. And as we kind of move through that strategy, we're looking forward to implementing

40:39some really fun, visible projects as we go forward. Okay. So we're at the end, goal six. Thanks for

40:49hanging in there with us. So this is related to looking at the brand of wealth. So this is the

40:56business brand of wealth, as well as to attract talent and visitors as well as investment. So

41:03essentially, it is undertaking a marketing strategy and then conveys the wealth experience and value

41:10proposition. You've heard me speak about that already a little bit, and then developing a revised

41:15destination marketing plan in conjunction with the new destination marketing organization,

41:20so destination marketing wealth. And essentially, it's implementing that. So the destination marketing

41:30brand and marketing plan are underway and, or sorry, have been completed. And then the marketing

41:38strategy this year is taking up a bulk of the work related to strategy work. But did you want to talk

41:45about destination marketing? Yes. Yeah. So the, so destination marketing brand development,

41:52so that occurred in 2023. And that, you know, I shouldn't put the logo on the slide. But we have

42:01a new logo, and of course, I haven't stuck it on my computer. We have a new logo. It's a wealth

42:06gather here, and it's a big G. And we over 2023, we did some community engagement and asked the

42:15people who lived here and our tourism operators, you know, what really speaks to wealth and what

42:20represents wealth. And everybody, you know, talked about, we have everything here, right? There's

42:26nature, there's city, there's all the things that you could ever want. But as we kind of drilled down

42:33into those concepts, what really came forward was, well, fights love to gather, they love to be

42:39together. And they love to, you know, you know, build and work on the city together. So that's

42:47where the wealth gather here brand came from. And it really resonates with tourism, right? You

42:51typically travel with friends, family, if you're visiting a place, but also, you know, businesses,

42:57they gather together to talk about new innovations for their business and that sort of thing. So

43:04that's where it's really pulled from. So that brand development has transitioned into a marketing

43:10strategy that's really about gathering. So, you know, we really focus our imagery, our language,

43:17on getting together, being together and enjoying all that wealth has to offer.

43:21Great. And so sort of the other strategy side is the departmental strategy. So it's about taking

43:31the brands that currently exist within the department, which now, especially with the

43:37bringing in of downtown strategic real estate, you know, and wealth function railway has its

43:43own brands as well. So better understanding who our audiences are, what messaging that they want

43:52to hear, what channels they want to hear it by, and really developing like what colorals do we

43:59need to create in order to meet our audiences. And then of course, some evaluation criteria in

44:06terms of our effectiveness and re reaching those audiences. So when I talk about the marketing

44:10strategy that some talk about this is broader than just economic development, it really encompasses

44:16what Alex was talking about related to the, the, you know, gather here brand and some of the other

44:22brands that exist from outside of the department, but how are they leveraged and all of those types

44:27of things that work definitely will be coming to this to this committee as well. We have some

44:33touch points worked into the RFP, which should be watched sometime within the next few weeks.

44:39And bring on a consult to complete that work. And yeah, I forgot. So those are that's sort of an

44:50overview of the department that was a lot of information thrown at you. So if any, if you

44:57need any of it broken down and you will hear us speak to, to the strategy and these action items

45:05and throughout our time together, this is not a strategy that sits on the shelf. It's a strategy

45:10that definitely guides the work we do strategically. There's also lots of boots on the ground related

45:16to just reacting to, you know, service request and outreach and that type of thing and working,

45:21of course, with our partners. But from in terms of strategy and how are we moving the needle on

45:28some of our work, this is, this is encompasses that. So I'm opening it up to questions.

45:41What is the Gulf Junction Railway infrastructure include? Like is that just an area of the city?

45:49Yeah, absolutely. So I can take that one. Yeah. So the Gulf Junction Railway is a railway that is

45:57municipally out. So the municipality is the sole shareholder of the railway. It is a freight railway.

46:05And there's 30 kilometers of rail. It goes from Campbellville through Guelph to the northwest

46:14industrial area. The customers are in industrial businesses in our community. And it joins what's

46:23special about it and why it's such a great economic development asset is because it allows

46:30those businesses that use rail to access both the Canadian, it's now called the Canadian Kansas

46:36Pacific Rail, as well as the Canadian National Railway, which don't provide daily service to Guelph.

46:45And they are connected, obviously, to broader international networks. And so what the Gulf

46:52Junction Railway does essentially is that junction between the CN and the CP rail

46:59to go and and then provides like bulk, bulk rail car counts and reduces the amount of money

47:10per rail car, right? So the fees are lower and there's a daily service because as a functioning

47:17railway, they can negotiate, right? They can negotiate those rates. And there's also reduced

47:23rates for car storage and those types of things. So I hope that that makes sense. Like he goes down,

47:30picks up, CNCP brings it to Guelph every day. And in some cases, some industrial processes

47:36require daily deliveries of products. So it's an incredible asset for our community.

47:43So it's track and we have some like we have like the junction and some square lines.

47:50It's the physical infrastructure infrastructure. Yeah.

47:58What is your strategic approach to get foreign direct investments like exchange with the

48:03different chambers in Toronto or what's what's their cooking? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And so

48:12foreign direct investment for the familiar with the term is essentially what a foreign business

48:18either purchases a business or purchases assets with within Canada. We have a lot of foreign

48:25owned companies in our community and and we do hope to continue to grow that long term. How do we

48:33do that? Right now. So two things, one, we better have to understand our clusters and understand

48:40where we have those opportunities. So that work is underway as I've already spoken to,

48:44but it doesn't mean that we're not also, you know, again, boots on the ground. So we are part of a

48:51we're part of something called the Ontario food cluster. And that is a cluster of Ontario communities

48:57that market to the broad Ontario egg cluster. And we go we will go in at least one mission

49:05every single year with this group. When we're with this group, we wear the Ontario food cluster hat

49:12after research sent out marketing materials related to that, we then have an opportunity to go after

49:18all of those all of those leads that are that come from that mission. So we go on one mission,

49:26but the overall group goes on at least three missions and we get all of the leads from those

49:32missions. It allows us to do some background research on each one of those leads and then

49:36reach out directly to them. So it's really about that's our biggest lead generation for foreign

49:42direct investment. We also target our business visitation programs to those to those foreign

49:51foreign owned businesses to help to generate further relationship development with those

49:57that we have here. It's easier for us to develop a relationship and and use further networks to

50:07increase foreign direct investment in our community with businesses that are already here and can

50:11really sell wealth for us. And there is one more piece that I wanted to speak to related to foreign

50:20direct investment. And it is not coming to me at present. But maybe if there's a few yeah if

50:29there's a few other other questions and I will my brain will find the file. It'll print something.

50:36Yeah. And now there's not a meeting. Are there even on the goal for the tourism workshops who

50:47are talking about are there more of those coming up? Yeah, so we always see them in Q1 of the year

50:51because that tends to be our slowest time and more people can participate. If I tried to have a

50:56workshop right now, everybody would laugh in my face. So yeah. So Q1 2026 we'll have another series

51:03of four. Yeah. It will probably be engaging folks at this table but also in our network to see what

51:15types of training they would be interested in as we kind of develop that we always try and get a

51:20read on things which actually reminds me both economic development and tourism have separate

51:27network newsletters well ours is actually called network news economic developments is cleverly

51:32called mind your business. So if folks are not signed up for either of those but would like to

51:40we send them out generally monthly with all sorts of information. So tourism's actually went out

51:46today and we try and share what marketing projects that we currently have on the go so people can

51:52engage with them and that sort of thing and financial resources or maybe the Ontario government

51:57has launched a funding program targeting tourism businesses or manufacturing businesses which they

52:02are currently doing. We try and push out information through that and keep them relevant. So if you

52:09want to sign up if you're not part already just let us know. I do remember. Okay. Great. So we do

52:18also have regular touch points with our trade commissioner service. They are absolutely are

52:25a reasonable as it relates to driving investment leads and that's across all industries. So trade

52:33commissioner services of federal service and it's available to any business and what we do is we

52:41meet regularly with them and ensure that they're aware of any businesses that may be looking for

52:46investment and also help to feed them our marketing materials for well so they can be an advocate for

52:52us. They have trade commissioner offices throughout the entire world. So whatever market that we're

52:59looking to target they have people in that country and that are working directly with

53:05businesses that are looking to invest in Canada. So that's like I said it's federal. It's through

53:13Global Affairs Canada and it's great service and yes we're well connected with that network as well.

53:20And if I may add one not known fact about when you're working with trade commissions around the

53:25world if you are planning to do any kind of going to a different country to do some aspiration about

53:31expanding your marketplace you can actually use the trade commission offices for free for your

53:37meeting purposes. So because you're a taxpayers here in Canada any trade office that's Canadian

53:44trade office around the world is free resources as well. So yes if you want it's better than having

53:51it in a restaurant or a coffee shop or something then you can actually use that. Yeah people don't

53:56know that. Wow. Great. You like trade dollars. Any other questions? Just maybe look for more

54:13chat with you chamber of commerce because using this momentum with the you and Canada at the moment

54:19if you haven't done it might be helpful because a lot of companies from Bureau might get in touch

54:25with them first and that might be a new bridge especially at the moment with that momentum might

54:30be helpful just an idea. Yeah. Oh absolutely. The Chamber of Commerce Boards of Trade especially

54:36in Toronto we will work with them as well. Yeah indeed an important partner for us definitely is

54:42that wealth chamber of commerce. Those types of points being made and shared in this in this form

54:49are exactly what gives this type of a group value to us so please do continue to

54:58share in that respect. We're together. Okay. If anything hits you feel free we are at your

55:08disposal so please do re-show if you have any questions concerns those types of things and

55:15yeah a lot of good work has already been undertaken and it's supporting a lot of great work that

55:21that you would be a part of. Our next meeting will have some like agenda items on it but that

55:37next meeting is September when right when we take August off. Okay. Yeah so chair we may

55:50go ahead for the item four that about do you have any announcement or you can just ask

55:58the staff if they have anything to announce. Yeah. So chair I don't have any announcements but

56:03the staff is there anything to announce? Thank you for being here.

56:10Hopefully we'll move to point five in adjournment. Would anyone like to move to adjourn the meeting

56:17please and do you have someone who would like to second that? Thank you Dennis.

56:31And all in favor? Excellent so our next meeting is

56:38September 9th Tuesday September 9th here or online at 3 p.m. and I'm sure Winnie will set out

56:46the lengths and agenda. Yeah definitely yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

56:55Good to see you summer. So no. Yes. Yeah that's fine.