By Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press
Essex County Council received a report at its July 17 meeting, detailing the results received from a discretionary regional shared services survey sent out to the seven local municipalities recently.
The survey questioned the seven local municipalities on its overall experience with the two regional shared service organizations, Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island (TWEPI) and Invest WindsorEssex (IWE), both acting as regional arms representing tourism and economic development, respectively.
Results came back more favourable for TWEPI. Those shared-services appear on the external commitment contributions are part of the County budget.
In 2023, the County provided $1,122,060 to Invest WindsorEssex, $782,700 to Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island (TWEPI).Origins of the survey stemmed back to December of 2023, when County Council received a report Administration prepared regarding current financial external commitments.
At the September 20 meeting, Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy put forward a motion asking for a report on all the current financial agreements that are in place, where the County allocates budget dollars, in addition to a report on cost-sharing agreements currently in place between the City and the County, and the County and other third parties, ahead of 2024 Budget deliberations.
When receiving the report in December, Bondy said she would like more details of the agreements the County has with the City of Windsor to ensure the County is getting the best bang for its buck.
As a result, County Council then moved Mayor Dennis Rogers’s motion to have Administration consult with local municipalities to investigate their satisfaction with the services provided by any discretionary external commitments and to invite these organizations to present to County Council and the local municipalities to demonstrate the benefit they are providing to municipalities and the value for money invested by the County.
Then, County staff issued the survey.
In the report County CAO Sandra Zwiers noted a survey was created by County Administration and sent electronically to County Council members, CAOs, and tourism and economic development staff of all seven local municipalities.
In surveying municipal partners, results were quite positive, Zwiers said. There were some areas identified for improvement.
When asked if TWEPI duplicated services provided by their municipality, 76% of respondents said “No.” From a service perspective, 88% of respondents believe TWEPI’s services complement and/or augment services provided at the local level. In addition, 96% of respondents believe County levy dollars should support TWEPI and if dollars weren’t directed to TWEPI, 44% of local municipalities would support increasing their local levy to maintain TWEPI services.
It adds that in terms of satisfaction, 96% of respondents report being either satisfied or very satisfied with TWEPI products/services. From a reputational standpoint, 91% of respondents rated their impression of TWEPI as good to excellent. The vast majority of respondents (91%) believed their municipality was receiving good value for money from TWEPI.
When asked if Invest WindsorEssex duplicated services provided by their municipality, 56% of respondents said “No.” From a service perspective, 67% of respondents believe Invest WindsorEssex’s services complement and/or augment services provided at the local level.68% of respondents believe County levy dollars should support Invest WindsorEssex and if County dollars weren’t directed to Invest WindsorEssex, only 26% of local municipalities would support increasing their local levy to maintain Invest WindsorEssex services.
In terms of satisfaction, 53% of respondents report being either satisfied or very satisfied with Invest WindsorEssex products/services. From a reputational standpoint, 52% of respondents rated their impression of Invest WindsorEssex as good to excellent.43% believe their municipality is receiving good value for money from Invest WindsorEssex.
Zwiers noted she reached out to the leaders of both organizations to get their feedback on the survey results.
In a letter to County Council, TWEPI CEO Gordon Orr noted that overall, he was very happy with the feedback provided and the high percentages of satisfaction as it relates to both the organization’s awareness and engagement scores. He was also pleased to see that the majority of Council does not feel that TWEPI is duplicating services within staff positions at the local level.
“We have made a concentrated effort to engage with our Regional Tourism Committee…to augment their message, and this group acts as a funnel to assist us with content creation for helping tell our story,” Orr wrote.
“If the members of County Council that were not as satisfied as some of the others would like to discuss specific concerns, I would be happy to do so. One operational change that I think would be helpful is if I were to be invited to appear as a delegate, during County Council budget deliberations, and answer any questions during your budget process, which might further help solidify our partnership in delivering this service to you,” he added.
Joe Goncalves, Interim President & CEO of Invest WindsorEssex, also provided feedback.
“Having spent over 24-years in the private sector, I firmly believe that a satisfied customer is crucial for the success of any business and IWE is no exception. We need to continuously strive to improve and grow as an organization, and this will be my major focus over the next several months.”
He added that IWE’s strategic five-year plan is now three-years overdue. This plan is crucial for any organization, providing a roadmap of guidance. “We have initiated this review and will be reaching out to the various municipalities and our ecosystem partners across Windsor-Essex for their input.”
Goncalves’s letter adds that over the past two-years, the Investment Attraction Team has been instrumental in bringing over $5.8 billion in new investments to the Windsor-Essex region. These investments have resulted in the creation of over 4,500 new jobs and an additional 15,000 indirect jobs, providing employment opportunities throughout the region.
The County, Zwiers said, plays a big part in two-way conversation. She encouraged County Councillors and staff at the local municipalities to reach out and engage with TWEPI and Invest WindsorEssex “to ensure we are getting the best value for our County-levy contributions.
“I think we can help them help us, by reaching out to them. If you have issues of a tourism or economic development nature, I think we would get more value – and see more value – if we are proactive in that relationship, as well,” Zwiers said.
Zwiers added that TWEPI and Invest WindsorEssex present to County Council at least once annually.
Kingsville Deputy Mayor Kim DeYong was not surprised by the survey results. She said TWEPI does a great job.
She is looking forward to how administration takes the data and what will happen when it is talked about during 2025 Budget deliberations. She expected County administration will provide recommendations on whether or not the County is getting good value.
“If the people who are depending on these services don’t feel like this is money well spent, what is the recommendation otherwise,” DeYong asked.
Kingsville Mayor Dennis Rogers was sad to hear IWE had its search for a new CEO put on hold until September. He added it would likely be a good idea to have the new CEO present its new plan, as the data collected through the survey indicated IWE does not have full support from local municipalities.
Bondy said the data is helpful information and gives County Council a benchmark. During the last budget deliberation, it felt like the County was cutting cheques for certain partnerships.
She believes 2025 is too soon to do this exercise again, but she would like to see it done again in 2026 to see if there have been any improvements.
It is concerning to hear 43% of survey respondents believed they were receiving good value for its dollars regarding IWE, Lakeshore Mayor Tracey Bailey said, adding she was pleased to learn the organization will have a strategic plan come forward.
She asked what the City of Windsor provides IWE. Zwiers believes it is a 50/50 split.
Both organizations take funds from the County and City and use them to leverage more from the province and federal government, Zwiers added. For LaSalle Mayor Crystal Meloche, she found the part of the survey concerning that indicated that many survey respondents answered “no” when asked if they believe their municipality was receiving good value for its money.
“I think going into next budget, I think we need to have Invest Windsor-Essex visit us – hopefully after the [CEO] recruitment process – to give us an idea of what is going to happen in 2025 to make sure that we are still on board with the amount we are giving them,” Meloche said.
Zwiers suggested County Councillors meet informally with IWE to understand what the issues are, in addition to a visit to County Council.
Essex County Warden and Mayor of Leamington, Hilda MacDonald, sits on the Invest WindsorEssex Board, “and have made it abundantly clear that they cannot count on County Council continuing if we don’t see them stepping up.”
She believes there has been change, and shared how the Interim CEO has engaged with the municipality since learning there is industrial land Leamington is looking to develop, for example.
When municipalities have specific issues, they need to reach out directly to Invest WindsorEssex. She said some onus is on the municipalities to reach out, and that it was good to raise the issue. The County needs IWE to be more invested, as there is a level of dissatisfaction.
MacDonald said she believes the message has been sent and received, and the level of satisfaction can be improved by doing that.
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