{"id":24409,"date":"2019-08-08T08:56:58","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T12:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24409"},"modified":"2019-08-15T19:56:18","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T23:56:18","slug":"economic-development-team-sees-opportunity-in-past-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/economic-development-team-sees-opportunity-in-past-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic development team sees opportunity in past challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is often said that every cloud has a silver lining,\nbut for Aurora\u2019s new Economic Development Corporation, one persistent cloud has\nnot only a silver lining, but an opportunity as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newly-minted Economic Development Board has formally\npresented its Strategic Plan to Council, one that focuses on four key pillars\ndesigned to keep Aurora\u2019s economy thriving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One key pillar, however, is a positive take on what was previously\nseen as an economic liability: Aurora\u2019s perceived status as a bedroom\ncommunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur first goal is targeting growth sectors and\nattracting new investment,\u201d Board Chair Tim Hamill told Council. \u201cWhat came out\nof the analysis of the workforce and community itself may be a little bit\nobvious, but when you look behind the data, it was still astounding to us. When\nyou look at the numbers, almost 50 per cent of households in Aurora have\nincomes of $100,000 or more. Of the working population of this Town, almost 50\nper cent have post-secondary degrees and, again, this is unheard of in the GTA\ncontext. Our community is made up of citizens, many of whom make above-average\ncompensation and have above-average education. The positive to us from a\nStrategic Plan and Economic Development point of view is obvious: attract new\ncorporations to the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is hidden behind this is what sounds, on the\nsurface, to be a negative effect: 75 per cent of our working population\ncommutes outside of Aurora. It doesn\u2019t sound like a good thing, but the reality\nis it is a tremendous asset and potential for us because these people chose to\nlive and locate in Aurora, their families are growing up in Aurora, they have a\ndeep and abiding connection with the Town \u2013 that\u2019s why they chose Aurora \u2013 but\nit also gives us a resource that is willing to listen to us in terms of\ninvestment potential and, in terms of if they are influencers in the\norganizations they are involved in, to move part or all of their organization\nto the community and\/or they may be considering start-ups themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a tremendous opportunity for the Town.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This targeting of growth sectors and attracting new\ninvestments is Goal #1 in the new plan, which is dubbed \u201cBuilding a Diversified\nEconomy for the Future.\u201d A diversified economy, according to the Board, will\nensure the community can be \u201cresilient through downturns in the economy.\u201d The\nadvantage of a diversified economy, they say, is that communities like Aurora\nwon\u2019t be tied to one specific sector and will remain \u201cflexible and sustainable\u201d\nthrough various economic cycles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harnessing the influence of professionals who have chosen\nto live in this community but work elsewhere is just one plank on the path to\nattracting new investment. Under this umbrella, the Board aims to create a\nsubcommittee to cultivate these relationships while focusing analysis on\nspecific economic sectors, including fostering an environment to attract the\nhealth care and food and beverage sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second goal of the plan is to \u201ccreate a competitive\nbusiness climate that supports existing business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the mandates of this plan is to work with Magna\nInternational to retain its permanent head office in Aurora. Additionally, the\ngroup intents to engage the business community to gauge their needs, \u201ctarget\nthe highly educated, high-income commuters to better match the existing\nresident base talent\u201d in Aurora, build relationships with students, and\ncontinue to cultivate the Town\u2019s Business Concierge Program which facilitates\nbusinesses looking to plant roots in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe creating a competitive business climate that\nsupports existing businesses is absolutely critical,\u201d said Mr. Hamill. \u201cIt is\nobvious that it is much easier to retain a business than to attract a new business,\nso we have to do everything in our power to ensure the people that work, own\nbusinesses in this community are not facing challenges which this community\ncan\u2019t meet. We have to identify what those challenges are, and we heard through\nthe consultation process there are challenges. As to whether the Town can solve\nall of the issues, probably not, but it gives us an opportunity through the\nconcierge process and interaction with our Board\u2026 to maybe foreclose the\npossibility of companies leaving, and enhance the likelihood they are going to\nincrease work for us here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe also have to be careful that one of the barriers for\nthese organizations might be the simple lack of available workforce. I believe\nthe statistic is only 25 per cent of the people who actually work in Aurora\nlive in Aurora. There is a reason for that and I think our Board has to delve\ninto that to see if it is an affordability issue or what it is, but it might be\na barrier to organizations. That will be part of our role to identify barriers\nand hopefully to influence the Town and whoever is involved, to move or modify\nthem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third goal of the plan is to continue work\nrevitalizing the Downtown Core in Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merilee Harris, Vice Chair of the Board, says they are\nwell-aware that downtown revitalization is a \u201cpassion and priority\u201d for Council\nas a whole, and the Board is committed to looking at what needs to be done to\ndrive people into the area and create jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goal number four is improving \u201cquality of life\u201d in Aurora\nthrough heritage, arts, culture, tourism, and community engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the parts of the DNA of being part of the Aurora\ncommunity, there is a sense of philanthropy clearly driven by the income and\neducation nature of the makeup of our population, but there is a culture inherent\nin our community about giving back, being involved, and that is also evolving\nwith the more diverse nature of the businesses and people who are moving into\nAurora,\u201d said Ms. Harris. \u201cThat spirit of community involvement is a core piece\nof our unique DNA and that is all part of the value proposition we can see\nbringing to potential investors about why locate in Aurora and why drive\nbusiness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan, as presented, was approved by Council, spurring\nthe Board onto their next steps of implementation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a tremendous document that is going to move us\nforward in a positive direction,\u201d said Mayor Tom Mrakas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This view was shared by Councillor Rachel Gilliland who\nsaid the four goals presented were \u201cspot on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am so impressed,\u201d she said. \u201cI am also really\nimpressed with your implementation plan and how it is all laid out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Councillor Sandra Humfryes: \u201cI really believe we\nhave an incredible, high-performing board that will really look after our Town\nin terms of involving the economic development here. We are on the cusp of\neverything happening with this amazing plan in front of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Michael Thompson noted that after meeting with\nthe Board and listening to Council\u2019s response, both they and local lawmakers\nwere \u201cdying to put those plans into action” and see \u201ctraction develop.\u201d\nCiting a conversation with CAO Doug Nadorozny, Councillor Thompson said the\nlatter had a plate up in his office that said \u201cEconomic Development\u201d with an\narrow pointing to the left \u2013 a plate which was subsequently taken down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we feel strongly we can put that plate back up\nand promote economic development in the Town once again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is often said that every cloud has a silver lining, but for Aurora\u2019s new Economic Development Corporation, one persistent cloud has not only a silver lining, but an opportunity as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6lH","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 11:13:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}