Economic Development Week in Frontenac County

Jeff Green | May 03, 2023

Matt Walker is the Economic Development Officer in North Frontenac. He is the only township based Economic Developer in Frontenac County, and works close with the two member Economic Development department at the County level (Debbie Miller and Richard Allen) as well as Frontenac Business Services and the North Frontenac the Economic Development Task Force.

This year, for the first time, Frontenac County and North Frontenac, have proclaimed Economic Development Week (May 8th to 12th) and it provides an opportunity for him to talk about the work that he does for the township.

“One of the struggles we have as economic developers is that people don't always know what we do. Tax dollars go into ED [Economic Development] but we are not like the roads department where people see what their money is paying for when a road gets fixed or improved.

“We do stuff for today for sure, and I spend about half of my time working directly with businesses, but we also spend time doing what I call planting seeds for the future, which is harder for people to see because it takes time,” he said, in a phone interview this week.

He said that the best way to promote a community as a place to promote new business is to work on making the community a great place to live and work for the people who are already there.

“It all comes down to community vibrancy,” he said, “it flows from making a community a good place to do business.

The main categories he works in are business development an retention, workforce development, strategic planning, and larger projects like real estate and project development, which can be limited in a rural township like North Frontenac.

But there are other aspects of the job that are unique to rural municipalities.

“I think of myself as being like a Swiss Army Knife. I've been working with businesses on surviving their business through COVID, disaster recovery after last year's Derecho and on building resiliency into their business. And if there are provincial or other programs that can help them build in resiliency I let them know how to access them.”

He works under the Manager of Community Development in North Frontenac, Brooke Hawley, who also manages Frontenac Parklands and the Crown Land Stewardship Program, and understanding the uniwue potential of Crown Land based economic development is one of the realities of his job.

“The township is mostly made up of Crown Land, which is not and likely will not be open to development, but is an attraction, and what we have to offer in North Frontenac is unique because of that,” he said.

He also said that the working relationship with the Frontenac County department, with their focus on regional infrastructure, has been good for North Frontenac.

“We have formed a good understanding. They are appropriately focused on building up things like a a county side destination marketing strategy, and it would be up to the lower tier to bring local businesses into that, and to do things on the ground. It is the same with the trail, once it gets completed in North Frontenac.

Among the recent initiatives in North Frontenac, the Astronomy Park brochure and summer events at the Park, as well as the recent Winterfest, are designed as events for the local community to enjoy as much as for visitors to enjoy.

“Events like Winter fest, improve quality of life, and make the community a more attractive place to live. When someday from Europe calls up and says, 'What it is north Frontenac about, it is not about what king of money can we offer them to locate, but what it feels like to live here.

To mark Economic Development week in North Frontenac, there will be a BBQ at the township office on Road 506 from 11am -1pm on Friday, May 12. All are welcome.