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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPSD-018-09Leaddsg t/re Wap '~~~'"~° REPORT PLANNING SERVICES Meeting: GENERAL PURPOSE AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE Date: Monday February 23, 2009 ~~ ~~.I-~~~~ PA- ~~j -U~ Report #: PSD-018-09 File #: DIR 8.9 By-law #: Subject: MAYOR'S TASK FORCE ON ATTRACTING HIGHER EDUCATION FACILITES TO CLARINGTON RECOMMENDATIONS: It is respectfully recommended that the General Purpose and Administration Committee recommend to Council the fallowing: 1. THAT Report PSD-018-09 be received; 2. THAT a Mayor's Task Force on Attracting Higher Education Facilities to Clarington be established in accordance with the Terms of Reference contained in Attachment #1; and 3. THAT the Clarington Board of Trade be thanked for their suggestion to undertake this initiative. Submitted by: Reviewed by. r "`~`~~' " '""~ a J. Creme, MCIP, RPP Franklin Wu Director, Planning Services Chief Administrative Officer DC/sn February 12, 2009 CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON 40 TEMPERANCE STREET, BOWMANVILLE, REPORT NO.: PSD-018-09 2 1. On January 26, 2009, Council referred to the Director of Planning Services correspondence from the Clarington Board of Trade suggesting that a committee be established to explore opportunities to attract a satellite campus of a higher education facility with specific reference to the. University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and Durham College. I was to report back on the mandate, terms of reference and committee structure. 2. Over the coming. years, there will be significant requirements for skilled trades and knowledge-based workers not only to support the major projects such as Nuclear New Build but also to support adjustments to a knowledge-based economy. The Martin Prosperity Institute, associated with the Rotman School of Business; recently completed a report at the request of the Premier called Ontario in the Creative Age. Authors Roger Martin and Richard Florida identify an agenda for Ontario which has four main elements: • Harnessing the creative potential; • Broadening our talent base; • Establishing new social safety nets; and Building aprovince-wide geographic advantage. They note that Ontario needs to raise its talent attainment with an increased percentage of our work force that has post secondary education. The executive summary is attached for Committee's information. (Attachment 1). 3. At the present time, UOIT and Durham College are undertaking a Campus Master Planning Process. The combined institutions have an enrolment of approximately 10,600 full time equivalent students. They are planning for expansion in two phases to approximately 13,000 and then to just under 15,000. At the present time, there is a need for 76,000 square metres of additional floor space. With the future proposed additions to enrolment, there is a need for a total of 191,000 square metres of new floor space. Of particular note, is the significant expansion of the graduate student program, which requires laboratory space. The current plans are to accommodate additional space requirements primarily on the Oshawa campus but also a minor expansion to the Whitby campus. (Attachment 2). 4. I understand that there may be an opportunity for a satellite campus of other institutions, most notably Trent University. The mandate of the Task Force is proposed to look at the potential of any higher learning institution locating in the Municipality of Clarington. 5. In looking how to best proceed with Council's objective, it is proposed that a Mayor's Task Force be established. A Task Force has atime-limited mandate. This task requires selecting a cohesive group of highly influential individuals that can achieve its mandate in a short period. It would likely be best to recruit individuals rather than having people apply in response to an advertisement. Some matters that the Task Force would deal with would be confidential. In these respects, it is somewhat different than a usual. advisory committee and should not be bound by the procedures for Council advisory committees. REPORT NO.: PSD-018-()9 6. It is recommended that the membership of the Task Force be relatively small since there is no need for community outreach or representation from a wide cross-section of the community. A Mayor's Task Force would be selected by the Mayor with the input-from members of Council and the Clarington Board of Trade. 7. The Task Force would be required to investigate future training needs in Clarington, discuss potential opportunities with the senior executives and consider potential strategies to attract a higher education facility in Clarington. The Task Force should report back to Council at a 6 month and 1 year interval. 8. It is recommended that a Mayor's Task Force be established in accordance with the Terms of Reference appended in Attachment 3. Attachments: Attachment 1 -Ontario in the Creative Age -Report Summary Attachment 2 -Durham College/UOIT Student Enrolment and Space Needs Attachment 3 -Terms of Reference for the Mayor's Task Force Interested parties to be notified of Council's decision: Michael Patrick, President, Clarington Board of Trade ATTACHMENT1 TO REPORT PSD-018-09 Ontario in the Creative Age February 5, 2009 Report Summary: Ontario's Opportunities in the Creative Age Ontario is in the midst of a global economic transformation. While this transformation to a knowledge- or idea-driven creative economy has been underway for more than three decades, the current fmancial and economic maelstrom has accentuated its importance. The combination of this transformation and the current economic uncertainty is leading to struggles and difficulties for many Ontazians. But it also opens great opportunities for our province. In crises like these, nations, regions, provinces, and states can rapidly change ground; they can improve or lose position, depending on the actions they take. Now is the time for Ontazians to take bold actions to ensure our future prosperity. As in all times of economic crisis, there is considerable pressure on governments to protect the past and to undertake bailouts - to preserve what we have during this time of uncertainty. But this protective approach can only forestall the inevitable. There is a better way. That way is to invest in our people, our businesses, our institutions, and our infrastructure. Productive and future-oriented investment will generate prosperity for the long term. There is no greater resource than the creativity, innovativeness, and productive talents of our people. Our goal must be to harness and use our full creative talents, to grow the businesses and industries of the future, to use our openness, tolerance, and diversity to gain economic advantage, and to invest in the infrastructure of the future in ways that enable more innovation and economic growth. Ontario can and must take ahigh-road strategy for economic prosperity in which all Ontazians can participate. We owe it to ourselves and future generations to build a vibrant economy for the creative age. 804 The current economic transformation is as big and as challenging as the transformation from agriculture to industry. Our economy is shifting away from jobs based lazgely on physical skills or repetitive tasks to ones that require analytical skills and judgment. This shift is also evident in the long-term trend away from employment in goods-producing to service industries, from occupations that depended on physical work to produce goods to ones that provide service and rely on creativity. The change is inexorable. We cannot turn away from it; nor can we slow it. The clock of history is always ticking. Competitive advantage and prosperity will go to those jurisdictions that can best prepaze themselves and adapt to this long-run trend. We must embrace it and act in ways that create a distinctive advantage for the province and ensure our long-term prosperity. In doing so, we must recognize that our current economic transformation -like others before it - not only generates considerable future opportunity, but also considerable inequality. Certain industries have expanded and certain occupations have seen their wages grow considerably, while others have languished, stagnated, or declined. Greater returns have gone to innovative industries, to more highly educated people, to those in creative occupations, and to urban areas. Our world is becoming increasingly spiky, with peaks that help to drive economic growth and valleys that are languishing. Our aim is not to lop off the peaks, but to raise the valleys. Our forebears did that in the industrial age by ensuring that manufacturing work was productive, well-paid, safe, and secure and by developing an infrastructure that helped grow industries and brought everything from better transportation to better housing. We can do it again in this economic transformation, by developing a distinctive advantage in highly innovative creative industries, by bolstering the productivity of our compefitive manufacturing industries, by transforming and improving productivity and wages in our growing service industries, by establishing a new social safety net system, and by developing atwenty-first century infrastructure that strengthens our urban centres and mega-regions while connecting older industrial centres and rural areas -giving us the scale and speed to compete globally. Such a holistic approach to achieving sustainable prosperity shazed broadly by Ontarians will mean higher wages, lower unemployment, greater resilience from economic shocks, and increased global leadership. It will enable Ontario to lead the current economic transformation and become a model for how jurisdictions can compete, thrive, and prosper in these times. This must be more than a government effort. While governments can spearhead and mentor change, the transformation we are living through will require the collective action of all Ontazians. Indeed, the prosperity of a jurisdiction is the result of collective choices made by all of its economic actors over time. For governments, this means making the right investments - ones that provide general and specialized support for the foundation of creativity and innovation. Businesses need to develop and invest in strategies that build on a jurisdiction's advantages and to invest in strengthening those advantages through training, capital investments, and other strategic initiatives. Businesses should make these choices for their own benefit, not in response to government directives. For individuals, it means investing in their own capabilities and skills. It also means investing their time and money in local businesses and in local arts, cultural, and charitable organizations. 805 Ontario has tremendous advantages to build on. We have a prosperous, socially cohesive society with globally competitive businesses and skilled workers. But we can do better -and we must. The evidence shows we rank well behind a set of peer regions in North America and slightly behind the best global peers in economic output per person - perhaps the single best measure of our overall economic prosperity. And in recent decades, we have seen our advantage erode from near parity with these global leaders. Ontazio is relatively prosperous; but our assessment is that we have settled for a level of prosperity that sells our province short. While it is not comforting to admit, we have in fact lost ground against the very best economies over the past twenty years - a period which has seen all three political parties in government. Although we house many world class industries, not enough of our businesses and industries compete on the basis of the unique and superior goods and services that are required to ensure lasting global competitiveness. And our economy does not place the same kind of premium on the core creative skills that drive economic growth as do our peers. As a result, our citizens' creative skills aze less developed than those of the world's leading jurisdictions. This creates aself-reinforcing downward cycle. When businesses fail to compete on unique, world-beating strategies, they lack the resources to invest in and reward the best creative skills in their workers. Workers in turn fail to develop their creative capabilities to the highest level through advanced education and training. The end result is lower levels of technological innovation and lagging competitiveness globally. All of this dampens our prosperity and hamstrings us in global competition. This cycle follows through in our public spending patterns, where governments under invest in post secondary education and make it unduly costly through tax policies for businesses to invest in machinery, equipment, and technology. The resulting danger is that the policy focus would shift toward hanging on to what has worked in the past and avoiding the new realities -thereby missing out on the new opportunities. We can do better. We must seize the opportunity to retune the Ontario economy to higher and better performance levels. We need to aspire to remake Ontario so it will thrive in the emerging creative economy and be truly exemplazy in global terms. To achieve this advantage for shared prosperity, we recommend four sets of actions for Ontario over the coming two decades. Harness the creative potential of Ontarians Ontazio operates in the creative age from a position of strength. We have a solid base of important creative skills and industries that compete on the basis of their distinctiveness. Yet we are not realizing the full creative potential of our people and industries. Ontario needs to deepen our skills, with a focus on analytical and social intelligence skills. We need to challenge our workers and our businesses to compete more on the basis of creativity and distinctiveness. We need to draw in the immense capabilities of our immigrants to our province's future success. 806 Broaden our talent base Ontazio needs to raise its talent attainment -the percentage of our work force that has post secondary education. We must aspire to be the education province - known readily throughout the world as the jurisdiction with a highly educated population and world renowned centres of learning and reseazch. Establish new social safety nets The rise of the creative age is a double-edged sword. It generates tremendous wealth creation opportunities for some. Yet it can leave many behind, especially those in jobs that aze disproportionately routinized, and those who do not have the skills and opportunities to participate fully in the creative economy. Ontario is a diverse and open place. It out performs its peers on measures of diversity and tolerance, but this advantage is not translating into economic success. We need to design a social safety net system for the creative age -one that partners with those who have the determination to participate fully in the creative economy. Not to do so is a terrible waste of human potenfial. Build province-wide geographic advantage Ontazio is a big province that built its prosperity on many inherent geographical advantages. We have rich natural resource areas and a thriving economic corridor. We have prosperous cities, and the non-metro parts of Ontario aze more prosperous than their counterparts elsewhere. Our future advantage in the creative age will be based on facilitating and encouraging the geographic clustering and concentration of industries and skills. The increasing spikiness of economic development puts a premium on density within our urban centres and on the velocity of connections across amega-region and with outlying areas. Ontario's challenge is to build the infrastructure that gains us the scale and the connectivity to ensure all regions of the province can achieve prosperity. Ontazians have built a prosperous economy and achieved a high level of social cohesion and diversity. These strengths create the possibility for emerging stronger from the current downturn and accelerating the longer term economic transformation. This will require us to build a creative economy that is more technologically advanced, inclusive, and sustainable. We aze excited about the challenges facing us all, and we see this report as a first step in an ongoing dialogue and process for achieving this distinctive advantage for Ontazio. 807 ATTACHMENT2 TO REPORT PSD-018-09 University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Durham College Projected Student Enrollment and Space Requirements Durham College Current - 5,683 Phase 1 - 6,535 Phase 2 - 7,387 UOIT -Undergraduate Current - 4,879 Phase 1 - 5,460 Phase 2 - 6,300 UOIT -Graduate Current - 77 Phase 1 - 1,040 (16% of UOIT enrollment) Phase 2 - 1,500 (20% of UOIT enrollment) Tota I Current Enrollment - 10,638 Phase i - 13,034 Phase 2 - 14,887 aoo,ooo N 150,000 z 8 °~ 100,000 50,000 0 808 Current Ffiase 1 Phase 2 ATTACHMENT3 TO REPORT PSD-018-09 Proposed Terms of Reference: Mayor's Task Force on Attracting Higher Education Facilities to Clarington Mandate: To assist Council in attracting higher education facilities to the Municipality of Clarington with particular attention to supporting the Energy and Science Park initiatives. The potential candidate institutions are Durham College, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), and Trent University; however there may be other institutions that are either considering a satellite campus or have programs related to Clarington's emerging training needs. The work of the Task Force will also seek to support Clarington's objective to be recognized as a Provincially Significant Employment Area. The Task Force will be cognizant of recommendations to the Province to make Ontario a leader in the Creative Age. Task Force Membership; The Mayor's Task Force will be comprised of up to six (6) community members selected by the Mayor with input from members of Council and the Clarington Board of Trade. The community members will be sufficiently knowledgeable about the mission and strategic objectives of higher education facilities, the training needs for existing and anticipated businesses in Clarington, the changing Ontario economy and work being done by groups such as the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity or the Martin Prosperity Institute. Task Force members should be influential inside and outside of the community. The composition of the Task Force should represent a variety of interests. The Mayor will be an ex-officio member of the Task Force. The Director of Planning Services is the municipal staff liaison for the Task Force. Process: The Task Force will look at the various options of attracting a satellite campus of a higher education facility. 10 809 The Task Force will: • review the needs and requirements identified by the Durham College/ UOIT Campus Planning Study and any similar studies or strategic plans available from Trent University, etc.; • undertake appropriate consultation with key stakeholders in Clarington regarding their labour farce and training needs, particularly Ontario Power Generation, with a view towards identifying which education opportunities could best be served from a satellite facility; • review with executive members of the institutions their current plans and the potential opportunities to meet their mission with satellite facilities or private/institutional partnerships; • identify opportunities within Clarington for satellite facilities and/or training space in conjunction with business; • advise the Mayor and Council on strategic actions that should be considered; • prepare an interim report to the Municipality within 6 months on their findings that could be the basis for discussions with the higher education institutions; • undertake additional actions as determined by Council to influence the investment decisions for higher education facilities and services; and • deliver a final report within one year. It is understood that in order to meet its mandate the Task Force will need to be flexible and adjust to changing circumstances. Meetings: The Task Force will meet at a convenient location and time for the members. Roles: The Chair The Chair of the Task Force will be selected by the Mayor and will: • facilitate the meetings; • be responsible to ensure that the task force meets its mandate; • be responsible to author any report of the task force with the assistance of other Task Force members; • be responsible for arranging and leading key meetings with the institutions and senior levels of government; and report to Council as appropriate and determined by the Task Force. 11 81 0 Members All Members of the Task Force will: • report any conflict of interest issues prior to decision making; • operate in a consensus mode, allowing members to discuss their respective views and opinions and to listen to others; • will review all documents, agendas and minutes presented to them to make informed decisions; • not release or use any confidential information obtained through discussions or other information provided to the Task Force; • participate in the writing of any report or other tasks as determined through the meetings; and • uphold the mandate of the Task Force. Municipal Staff Liaison The staff liaison will assist with any research and municipal planning information that would be helpful to the Task Force. Mavor's Office The Mayor's Office will be responsible for all administrative arrangements and meeting minutes. 12 811