A member of Huron County's Economic Development Board presented the board's growing success project to Huron East council Tuesday night.
John Marshall stressed there is no pre-determined outcome of the Service Delivery Review and it is definitely not a move towards single-tier governance as some municipal councillors had feared. Marshall explained the focus of the project is how the county and its partner municipalities are positioned to facilitate economic development. Marshall pointed out the county's Economic Development Board includes some of the best business minds in the county as well as very talented people from a wide range of other fields and there is a great deal of energy on the board, but what they need now is direction and, for that, they're turning to the partner municipalities.
Marshall made it clear the project won't work without the participation of the municipal councils and their input into the RFP. He added he's already addressed five or six municipal councils and believes the support is there, but stressed the project won't work without it.
“When we talk about the Growing Success project, we have no predetermined outcome, we're not designing it be a governance project, we're not designing it in any other way other than that we can grow this county. There is no pre-determined outcome," he said. “We have people from industry, we have people from academia, we have some of the best business minds in the county, we have some great people from the public sector. What we're needing is direction. We've got a strategic plan – we have to understand how to enact that strategic plan.
“Without their participation this is a pointless exercise. That's why we're having these meetings. I've just completed five or six of them and I've gotten the indication that there will be that participation but number one we want their participation, number two we want their input into our RFP.”