REPORT TO

MAYOR AND COUNCIL

PRESENTED: JUNE 15, 2009 - SPECIAL MEETING REPORT: 09-84

FROM: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIVISION FILE: 0540-20
SUBJECT: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE
2009 WORK PLAN

RECOMMENDATIONS:
That Council receive the report entitled “Economic Development Advisory Committee 2009
Work Plan” for information; and further

That Council endorse the Economic Development Advisory Committee’s 2009 Work Plan as
presented in this report.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Staff continually track and report the progress of implementing the 2002 Economic Development
Strategy (EDS) to the Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC). In addition,
Council’s Economic Development Advisory Committee conducted comprehensive prioritizing
sessions of the 2002 EDS in 2006, 2007, and 2008. While there are several actions in the 2002
EDS that have not yet been completed, it is the opinion of the current EDAC with staff support,
that implementation of the 2002 Economic Development Strategy is essentially complete.
Should Council concur, EDAC is recommending a process be initiated to create a new draft
EDS for Council’s consideration and endorsement. EDAC’s 2009 Work Plan (attached) would
create a process, timeline, budget, and framework for the new EDS and the 2010 Work Plan
would result in creation of the actual draft document for Council’s consideration.

EDAC respectfully requests that, as part of its 2010 budget deliberations, Council provide one-
time funding to cover the costs of facilitators/consultants needed to help facilitate expert panel
sessions and public information workshops and to compile research data toward a new draft
Economic Development Strategy for Council’s consideration.

PURPOSE:
The purpose of this report is to present the Economic Development Advisory Committee’s 2009
Work Plan for Council’s endorsement including the initiation of a process in 2009 for the
establishment of a new Economic Development Strategy in subsequent years.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE 2009 WORK PLAN Page 2 . . .

BACKGROUND/HISTORY:
The first Economic Development Strategy (EDS) was adopted by Council in June 1989. In
2001, the Economic Development Advisory Committee embarked on an 18-month, $45,000
process that culminated in Council adopting the 2002 EDS. In January 2004, an Economic
Development Officer was hired to implement the 2002 EDS. Since then, staff has reported on
the progress toward completion of the 2002 EDS at the end of each year.

Based on the latest status report the implementation of the 2002 EDS was as follows:

Township of Langley 2002 Economic Development Strategy

Summary of Progress on Actions Contained in the Strategy as at December 31, 2008

Focus Area Not Started In Progress Ongoing Completed TOTAL

Community Image 1 1 9 2 13
Education & Training 2 1 9 3 15
Tourism 1 0 7 3 11
Agriculture 4 2 7 4 17
Horse Industry 2 1 3 0 6
Heritage & the Arts 3 0 4 3 10
Commercial Development 0 1 8 2 11
Business/Industrial Parks 1 0 7 3 11
Infrastructure 0 2 8 0 10
Film Industry 4 1 5 6 16
Convention Centre 2 1 1 4 8
TOTAL 20 10 68 30 128
(16%) (8%) (53%) (23%) (100%)

Status:

NS – Action Not Started

IP – Action In Progress (started, and can be completed)
OG – Action Ongoing (started, but perpetual nature of the action means it
has been added to the annual work program)
C– Action Completed

Thus, after five years, there are only 20 of the 128 actions of the 2002 EDS that have not been
started (representing 16% of the total actions). As a result of deliberations of the Economic
Development Advisory Committee (EDAC) during 2006, 2007 and 2008, six of these not started
actions have been deemed to be the direct responsibility of an outside organization and are
expected to be completed within the next five years with no Township staff intervention required.
That reduces the number of not started actions to 14 (or 11%) of the total Strategy.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE 2009 WORK PLAN Page 3 . . .

DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS:
At its April 1, 2009 meeting, EDAC decided that the 2002 EDS was essentially completed and
that it was the top priority of the Committee to embark on a process that will result in a new EDS
for the Township of Langley. At its May 6, 2009 meeting, EDAC passed the following
recommendations related to the 2009 EDAC Work Plan.

¾ That the Economic Development Advisory Committee advise Council

that the 2002 Economic Development Strategy is essentially
complete; and further,
That Item 2 of the draft 2009 Work Plan “commence and develop a 5-
year Economic Development Strategy for the Township with
appropriate economic indicators” form the 2009 EDAC Work Plan.

¾ That G. MacKinnon e-mail the draft EDAC Work Plan and a draft
report to Council to members, and on approval of EDAC members by
e-mail, authorize him to forward it for Council’s consideration.

Attachment A to this report is a copy of the 2009 EDAC Work Plan – which initiates a process
for the establishment of a new EDS – including an expectation of what will be accomplished at
each of the remaining meetings in 2009. EDAC members have reviewed this 2009 Work Plan
and agree with its content. EDAC is asking Council to endorse the Work Plan as per section
17.3 of Bylaw 2008 No. 4700:

Every year … the Advisory Committees shall present to Council

their proposed and prioritized work plan for the following year for
Council’s review and ratification.

Staff agrees with the EDAC recommendations that implementation of the 2002 EDS is
essentially complete and that now is a good time to create a process for developing a new EDS.
Staff has recommended to EDAC that, in creating a new EDS, the Committee should consider
each of the not started actions in the 2002 EDS regarding relevance to the future economic
development of the Township and either include, exclude or revise the action accordingly for the
new EDS.

Financial Implications
The cost to create the 2002 EDS was approximately $45,000. The bulk of the costs to create a
new EDS will occur in 2010. At this time, it is anticipated that any required funding for 2009 can
come from the Economic Development Strategy Implementation account for 2009.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE 2009 WORK PLAN Page 4 . . .

It is expected that the 2010 EDAC Work Plan (which will actually create a draft of the new EDS)
will require an additional amount of money that will exceed the Economic Development
function’s base annual budget. A one-time budget request will be brought forward during the
2010 annual budget process to assist in funding the 2010 EDAC Work Plan.

Respectfully submitted,

Gary MacKinnon
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CO-ORDINATOR
for
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIVISION

GRM/grm
This report has been prepared in consultation with the following listed departments.

CONCURRENCES
Division Name
FINANCE DIVISION D. SPARKS

ATTACHMENT A Township of Langley Economic Development Advisory Committee

2009 Work Plan
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE 2009 WORK PLAN Page 5 . . .

ATTACHMENT A

Township of Langley
Economic Development Advisory Committee
2009 Work Plan

At an April 1, 2009 meeting, the members of the Township’s Economic Development Advisory
Committee (EDAC) accumulated ideas for incorporation into the Committee’s 2009 Work Plan.

By e-mail during April, Committee members ranked the importance of the 6 main ideas.

After confirming the voting and having further discussion, the EDAC members approved the
following two-part Work Plan for 2009:

1) Via staff report from the Economic Development Co-ordinator, recommend to

Council that the 2002 Economic Development Strategy (EDS) is essentially
implemented and it is time to consider development of a new EDS for the Township.
2) Request a yet-to-be determined budget amount from Council to be used for
facilitation/consultation/research services to develop a process to prepare a draft
EDS for Council’s consideration in 2010. The process should result in a new
Strategy that:

a. Creates a marketing/positioning/branding statement for the Township of Langley.

b. Has a more industry-specific focus (e.g., light rail manufacturing, food
processing, etc.) based on an analysis of emerging trends, rather than a program
to develop the entire breadth of the local economy.
c. Takes full advantage of major capital and infrastructure investments as economic
generators.
d. Does a comparative analysis of the Township’s local economy with that of
Chilliwack, Abbotsford, City of Langley, Surrey, Delta, Richmond, Maple Ridge &
Pitt Meadows. (This comparative analysis should specifically assess the long-
term impact of Campbell Heights Industrial Park on the existing Langley
economy and identify the current and possible future barriers to development in
Langley).
e. Provides a set of economic and growth indicators that should be used to evaluate
the successful implementation of the Township’s EDS.
f. Gives due consideration to the work and recommendations of the Aldergrove
Task Force Implementation report.
g. Identifies emerging trends that the Township of Langley could consider pursuing.
h. Explores various models for providing economic development services in the
Township of Langley.

Subsequent meetings of EDAC in 2009 will be dedicated as follows:

June:

¾ Understand methodology, framework and timeline for the Township’s 2002 Economic
Development Strategy process.

¾ Understand how the goals of the 2002 Economic Development Strategy have been
incorporated into the Township’s Sustainability Charter model.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE 2009 WORK PLAN Page 6 . . .

¾ Determine the funding requirement to request from Council from the 2009 and 2010
budgets.

September:

¾ Presentations from experts about where global economies are heading and how
Langley can prepare itself to arrive there as a significant “player”. (There may be a
budget requirement for this as well.)

¾ Review the never started and uncompleted actions from the 2002 Economic
Development Strategy and decide which ones (if any) should be brought forward for
consideration in the new Strategy.

October:

¾ Facilitated session to develop a new (or refresh the old) Mission Statement for the
new Strategy.

¾ Identify the 3 to 5 focus areas that the Strategy will concentrate on.

November:

¾ Create timeline and identify key players for the facilitated roundtable meetings that
will occur in 2010 which will help identify specific goals and actions for the new
Strategy.

December:

¾ Prepare EDAC Annual Report/Draft 2010 Work Plan to Council.