Data strategies & eliminating barriers to regional collaboration

Sandra Dueck, Policy Analyst, Peterborough Chamber of Commerce and 2019 Board Chair Ben vanVeen of Team vanRahan, Century 21 present policy resolutions at the 2019 Ontario Chamber AGM in Muskoka.

Advocacy on behalf of our Peterborough business community is a major pillar of work for the Peterborough
Chamber of Commerce.   In fact, the concept is built directly into our reason for being under the word influence.

Influence: We are committed to helping create the conditions for growth and to improving the
competitiveness of the Peterborough business community through our lobbying efforts at every level of government.

This year, in 2020, your Peterborough Chamber Board of Directors has approved three policy resolutions to be put forward for the Ontario Chamber of Commerce Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Timmins at the end of April.

The three are all very different, but touch upon three very important areas for our community:
improvements to the rules for craft distillers, accessing open data, and regional economic development and collaboration.

The resolution on improvements to the regulations around craft distillers is an area where the Peterborough Chamber weighed in several years ago and is re-submitting an updated version for consideration which includes a continued call for a level playing field in taxation for all categories of alcohol beverages as well as changes to the activities and tasting room allowances for distilleries.   

The policy resolution on data was formulated out of a consultation the Peterborough Chamber of
Commerce hosted with the provincial government and local businesses and community
leaders.  This resolution is asking for a dashboard that allows businesses and residents to ask a question and receive an answer from government data sets in a readable and easy to share format.   During the consultations it was expressed that understanding data in the raw format is challenging and not as accessible as it could be.  There are other examples of such dashboards that are working well such as the Workforce Development Board’s Help Desk which provides interested parties with the latest labour market information.

The third resolution being put forward examines how a municipality can account for the results of economic regional collaboration that crosses geographical boundaries.   With the development of official plans, the challenges of meeting growth targets under the Places to Grow Act and the ability to be ready to accommodate new business growth, a new formula that recognizes the inputs of multiple municipalities (land or services for example) may help encourage more regional collaboration to the benefit of each individual municipality and the region.

The three resolutions will be submitted to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce in the coming weeks and will be vetted for provincial impact.  Delegates to the AGM in Timmins will then have the opportunity to debate and vote on making the recommendations in the resolution part of the advocacy dialogue of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.