WATERLOO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE (WEDC)

MEETING
Tuesday, February 21, 2017

8:00 am

Erb Room

MINUTES

Sandra Banks / X / Horace Coelho / X / Adrian Conrad / X
Paul Doherty / Regrets / Grant Gingrich / X / Blaine Gray / X
Art Sinclair / X / Gary Hallam / X / Brad Marsland / Regrets
Ryan Modesto / X / Joel Peters / X / Dwayne Priestman / X
Paul Puopolo / Regrets / Ron Schwark / Regrets / Darrin Snider / X
Carol Stewart / X / Sandra Stone / X / Jason Thistlethwaite / X
Zach Weston / X / Carol Wiebe / X / David Zhang / Regrets
Mayor Dave Jaworsky / X / Councillor Bob Mavin / Regrets / Councillor Mark Whaley / X
Tim Anderson / X / Justin McFadden / X / Nancy Gehl (Minute Taker) / X

Quorum achieved; Grant Gingrich in Chair

  1. Approval of Agenda
  2. Approved as written
  1. Approval of Minutes of January 17, 2017
  2. Approved as written
  1. Economic Development Update – Justin McFadden, Tim Anderson, Mayor Jaworsky, Handout
  • West Side Employment Lands
  • Approx. 125 acres with 100 developable
  • Making decision on firm for RFP (for engineering design, zoning component), hoping to award in early March;
  • first priority – building road through in 2018
  • Codefest 2.0
  • Partnered with UW Engineering to host joint hack-a-thon to promote City’s Open Data
  • Over 300 attendees
  • Small Business Centre – New Advisor, hired, starting mid-March
  • Uptown CIP
  • 14 projects approved in 2016
  • Will be accepting applications in April
  • Much activity re: strategic dispositions of City-owned uptown lands
  • Mayor Jaworsky:
  • Brampton Board of Trade holding event March 2nd, speaking on transit/moving people and goods through GTA –Waterloo Region corridor
  • Several new restaurants opening in Uptown as well as a jewelry store in mall
  • April 12th, State of the City Address

a)WREDC Update – Tim Anderson

  • Tim referenced ppt sent out with January WEDAC Minutes
  • See page 6 – Disciplined sales funnel approach to correlate business leads
  • Page 7 –Metrics: 28 deals going into 2017; closed/announced $9.5M in 2016 (ETAS, NCC Group, Highview Residences, Hahn Plastics)
  • ETAS CEO to speak at Chamber Manufacturing event March 9th
  • Tony LaMantia to attend April WEDAC meeting

b)Economic Development Fund Update – Justin McFadden (Spreadsheet attached to Agenda)

  • Created in 2009, approx. 25% of surplus goes into fund
  • City uses 10 year budget cycle based on 0% surplus – note on spreadsheet negatives are positive and positives are negative
  • $75K annually goes into Ec Dev operating budget to create flexibility for special items/events, etc.
  • CAO budget line similar to Ec Dev line; currently to provide seed funding for 2019 FCM Board Meeting bid
  1. Update: Communitech Data Hub – Kevin Tuer, VP, Strategic Initiatives, Communitech (ppt. available on request)
  2. Increasingly data driven world; 90% of world’s data was created in the last 2 years
  3. Data is “the new oil” as well as “the new asbestos”
  4. Communitech Data Hub Mission: to build an ecosystem that allows companies to maximize value from data; focus on the most lucrative, most important parts of the data value chain: converting data to information, knowledge and wisdom
  5. The model involves a space component, companies component and programs component
  6. Space: heritage building (old police station in Waterloo) in uptown, within the “Data District”
  7. Companies: Enterprises, scale-ups, startups and tech enablers; mix of clients and skill sets; flexible, collaborative
  8. Programs: SIZ (Special Interest Zone) projects for collaboration, events, skills development, tech and business advisory services, platforms
  9. Will host ODX Canada’s Open Data Hub in future
  10. 3 or 4 Special Interest Zones already spoken for (one taken by IBM); seed topics in SIZ: artificial intelligence, connected vehicles, cyber security, smart cities
  11. 30% start-up and SME space filled
  12. Looking for right fit
  13. What can WEDAC do to help? Get the word out, recommend companies
  1. Updates from Subcommittees

a)Talent Retention Subcommittee

  • Met with Mayor Jaworsky and Steve Currie from Communitech; very informative
  • Will have one more meeting in next couple of weeks
  • Will bring recommendations to March WEDAC meeting

b)Zoning By-law Subcommittee

  • Working with City Staff on second draft; work in progress
  • Joel to bring update to WEDAC in March
  1. Update: Evolv1 – Tova Davidson, Executive Director, Sustainable Waterloo Region (ppt available on request)
  2. First high-performance, sustainable workplace of its kind in Canada
  3. Public-private collaboration that leverages a $35M contribution from The Cora Group
  4. Committed to design, build and manage the first LEED Platinum, net-positive energy and operationally carbon neutral building
  5. 110,000 square foot building at the David Johnston Research + Technology Park, University of Waterloo
  6. Model can be replicated; financially viable model for developers and tenants
  7. Already achieved 60% occupancy with confirmed tenants such as EY
  8. Drives innovation, higher performance, productivity and profitability in building design
  9. Createsnew green jobs and training
  10. Opportunity for Waterloo to demonstrate leadership in the development of Canada’s clean economy
  11. Develop a blueprint for the first high-performance, sustainable workplace of its kind that can be marketed around the world
  12. Leverage regional innovation assets, expertise, and investments to address Canadian economic and environmental priorities
  13. Impacts:
  14. Operationally carbon neutral
  15. Enable and promote sustainable transportation with linkages to the LRT, EV charging stations, and cycling infrastructure
  16. Gather, assess, and publish data for the community on behavioral, financial, and sustainability impact
  17. Catalyze the development of a cleantech cluster in the region
  18. Integrate with and support key innovation initiatives in Waterloo Region: Smart Cities Challenge, Internet of Things and Big Data
  19. Next Steps:
  20. Building
  21. Complete design for building
  22. Ground breaking in early 2017
  23. Tenant move in Fall/Winter 2018
  24. Innovation Hub
  25. Develop and execute full partnership strategy with provincial and federal government in early 2017
  26. Finalize and rollout Citizen Engagement Strategy
  1. Election of Chair and Vice Chair
  2. Nominated for Chair: Grant Gingrich; nominated for Vice-Chair: Sandra Stone; all in favour, none in opposition
  3. Elected: Chair for 2017-2018, Grant Gingrich
  4. Elected: Vice-Chair for 2017-2018, Sandra Stone
  1. Strategic Planning Brainstorming Session Update
  2. Postponed at this time until Chair has off-line discussion with Executive Director of Economic Development and Mayor Jaworsky
  1. Round Table
  2. Noted that Smart Cities keeps coming up
  3. Should be addressed in Economic Development Strategy
  4. Could be a priority for WEDAC ; seems to be proper advisory committee to give input on Smart City initiatives with true ROI
  5. If anyone is interested in joining the Talent Retention Subcommittee, let Nancy know and she will connect
  6. Evolv2 on books, right across from Evolv1
  7. Waterloo Conestoga College – tenders out, should be awarded end of March
  8. WLU:
  9. leading province in increase of applications
  10. Distinguished scientist and academic leader Deborah MacLatchy named president and vice-chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University, July 1st. Will attend WEDAC in second half of 2017
  11. Correspondence circulated by Art Sinclair from Ministry of Transportation re: High Speed Rail Surveys in the Toronto to Windsor Corridor; everyone encouraged to for link to the survey
  12. Conestoga Mall retenanting Target space with 2 large, approx. 20 small retailers; opening in March

Meeting adjourned 9:55 am

Next Meetings:Tuesday, March 21, 2017

8 am

Erb Room

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

8 am

Erb Room

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