June 30, 2010
The Mowat Centre has released new research on regional economic development agencies.
Reform Them Don’t Kill Them: New Mowat Centre Research Lays out Recommendations for Canada’s Regional Economic Development Agencies and FedDev Ontario’s $200 Million Infusion Into Ontario
Toronto – The Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation at the University of Toronto has released new research that provides recommendations for the new FedDev regional economic development agency. The research findings were discussed at a luncheon discussion at Hart House at the University of Toronto on Tuesday, June 29.
“We’ve spent a lot of money in Canada on regional economic development. It has largely been a transfer of wealth from Ontario to other parts of the country and much of that money has had little impact on strengthening local economies,” said Matthew Mendelsohn, Director of the Mowat Centre. “We need a new model.”
New research by David Wolfe, Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, provides a survey of international best practice with regional economic development policy. He finds that the European Union is creatively using regional economic development to support networks that allow communities to take advantage of their local strengths and assets. He concludes that this “place-based” focus on mobilizing local capacity for innovation should inform the federal government’s approach to regional economic development spending.
Neil Bradford, Professor of Political Science at Huron University College, University of Western Ontario, documents the past successes and failures of Canada’s regional economic development agencies. He concludes that agencies will be most effective if they make a small number of transformative investments rather than thinly spread money around – in other words, “Go Big or Go Home”.
The authors recommend that FedDev Ontario must adopt a coordinated approach at the local level that integrates planning across existing programs.
“The federal government should abandon the discredited road of attempting to equalize economic outcomes across regions. Instead it needs to invest in the local assets and regional clusters that show promise,” said Mendelsohn.
