by Rural Ontario Institute
18. January 2012 15:30
For those interested in rural community development, the provincial government’s consultations during January and February on the parameters of the Southwestern Ontario development fund, announced by the Liberals during the election, will be an important opportunity to have your say and hear what others are saying about the critical economic development priorities facing this large and diverse geography of the province. Key questions raised by the government’s consultation paper pose fundamentally different potential areas of focus, e.g. should the fund support only employment outcomes/business driven projects or could industry associations, municipalities and non-profits also be eligible? Given limits to the size of the fund it is also worth pausing to reflect on what proportion might be absorbed by projects in large urban areas. No doubt there are any number of worthwhile initiatives in large centres such as Hamilton, K-W, London, Windsor, Brantford etc…so rural Ontario stakeholders may anticipate stiff competition to get into the funding queue and it will be interesting to see how many suggest that the province contemplate the wisdom of allocations for initiatives in smaller towns.
The locations of the consultations are as follows and registration is required before January 23rd
Owen Sound January 26
Windsor January 27 AM
St. Thomas January 27 PM
St. Catharines February 3
Guelph February 6
http://www.ontariocanada.com/ontcan/1medt/en/swodf_en.jsp
Norman Ragetlie, Director, Policy & Stakeholder Engagement