The City of Windsor is looking to hire a consultant to figure out how to handle economic development in-house.
"For us it's trying to figure out as a city, what elements we want to deliver locally," says Mayor Drew Dilkens.
City council currently provides $1.2-million to the Windsor-Essex Economic Development Corporation, which Dilkens expects a portion to be redirected to city-focused economic development efforts.
"Whatever we pull out and decide to deliver in Windsor will be taken out of that envelop with the balance likely going to WEEDC," says Dilkens, stressing the move doesn't mean the city is backing out of the regional economic development group.
"We have never said we're getting out of WEEDC," Dilkens tells BlackburnNews.com. "The reality is we will always have some regional relationship related to economic development with Essex County."
Dilkens adds the departure of the organization's former CEO Sandra Pupatello has nothing to do with plans to focus on local economic development, pointing to the item as part of the city's 20-year-plan.
"Our goal at the end of the day is to create jobs," says Dilkens. "This is what this is about and I don't think anyone who has looked at WEEDC and seen the number of CEOs that have been burned through in nine years thinks that that is a healthy organization."