SOUTH ALMAGUIN HIGHLANDS “AFFORDABLE BEAUTY” ASSET INVENTORY, GAP ANALYSIS AND MARKET STUDY _______________________________________ JOHN FINLEY CONSULTING Final Report SAHEDC: Asset Inventory, Gap Analysis & Market Study Final Report March 2014 CONTENTS 1. BACKGROUND 4 1.1 Area History 1.2 Methodology Used in this Study . Meetings with Decision-Makers . Conducting Research into Best Practices . Creating a Catalogue of Current Investment Information . Conducting a Gap Analysis . Creating a Market Study . Reporting on Key Findings in a Draft Report 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 8 2.1 Key Assets and Challenges 2.2 Summary of Recommendations 3. ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN 16 3.1 What the Decision-Makers are saying 3.2 Best Practices for South Almaguin Highlands 4. ASSET INVENTORY 22 4.1 Land Use ……………………………………………………………………………... 22 4.2 Labour Market ……………………………………………………………….. 22 4.2.1 Occupational Wage Data 4.2.2 Education Levels as Compared to the Province of Ontario 4.2.3 Workforce Trends 4.2.4 Population and Age Distribution 4.2.5 Health of the Local Population 4.3 Transportation ……………………………………………………………….. 27 4.3.1 Highways and Local Access Roads 4.3.2 Motor Coach, Taxi and Transportation Services 4.3.3 Railways 4.3.4 Airways 4.3.5 Waterways 4.3.6 Routing and Resources for Mass Transit Trucks 4.3.7 Transportation Terminals 4.3.8 Postal and Delivery Services 4.4 Community Facilities ……………………………………………………….. 31 4.4.1 Parks and Recreation 4.4.2 Private Recreation Centres 4.4.3 Arts and Culture 4.5 Education ……………………………………………………………………… 36 4.5.1 Elementary and Secondary _______________________________________ JOHN FINLEY CONSULTING Final Report SAHEDC: Asset Inventory, Gap Analysis & Market Study 4.5.1 Post-Secondary 4.6 Places of Worship ………………………………………………………….. 38 4.7 Health Care and Wellness ………………………………………………… 39 4.7.1 Physicians and Health Care Teams 4.7.2 Allied Health providers 4.7.3 Wellness and Fitness 4.7.4 Access to healthcare facilities 4.8 Social Services …………………………………………………………….. 40 4.9 Public Utilities Infrastructure ……………………………………………. 41 4.9.1 Water and Sewer 4.9.2 Power 4.9.3 Information and Telecommunications 4.10 Additional Elements …………………………………………………….. 42 4.10.1 Private Housing 4.10.2 Public Housing 4.10.2 Natural Resources 4.10.3 Historic Preservation 4.10.4 Business Climate 4.10.5 Impact of global markets 4.10.6 Complimentary and competitive industries 4.10.7 Crime Rate, Police and Fire and Emergency Services 4.10.11 Climate 4.10.12 Cost of Living Index 4.11 Tax Assessments ………………………………………………………… 48 4.12 Incentives …………………………………………………………………. 48 4.13 Community Improvement ……………………………………………… 49 5.0 Market Study 51 6.0 Gap Analysis 63 _______________________________________ JOHN FINLEY CONSULTING Final Report SAHEDC: Asset Inventory, Gap Analysis & Market Study 1. BACKGROUND John Finley Consulting, in partnership with ASM Advanced Strategic Management Consultants, is pleased to present this final report for the South Almaguin Economic Development Committee’s consideration. It contains an ASSET INVENTORY, GAP ANALYSIS and a MARKET STUDY. The final report will provide the South Almaguin Economic Development Committee partners with the strategies necessary to update the current 2013 Economic Development Plan. Based on SAHEDC’s Core Values, this report and its recommendations point the way to: 1. Create and sustain economic growth within our community. 2. Ensure the social prosperity of our residents and stakeholders through preserving and celebrating our artistic and historic culture, our safety and our quality of life 3. Establish a long range focus for conserving our region's points and properties of interest. 4. Build strong relationships with all stakeholders, residents and neighboring municipalities and nurture them through strong, effective communication. 5. Provide strong leadership and governance within the region. We have collected and analyzed data from a variety of sources to compile an asset inventory. We have interviewed key figures in local government and business and surveyed relevant plans and reports to get a wide range of public opinion and perspective on issues and priorities. This has enabled us to produce our gap analysis and identify the key findings and issues that we recommend as priorities in updating the Strategic Economic Development Plan. 1.1 Area History The South Almaguin area was first settled in the 1870's and 1880's by settlers primarily from southern Ontario and the British Isles, under the Free Land Grant Act of 1868. The townships of Armour and Ryerson were first surveyed for settlement in 1871 by a Mr. Clementi and by 1879 the little village of Burk’s Falls had been established at the falls below the confluence of the north and south branches of the Magnetawan River. 4 JOHN FINLEY CONSULTING Final Report SAHEDC: Asset Inventory, Gap Analysis & Market Study David Francis Burk of Oshawa beached his canoe at the foot of the falls on the beautiful Magnetawan River in the autumn of 1875. He chose his land under the Free Land Grant Act. Mr. Burk and Mr. Knight, who had arrived about the same time, made what might have been the first political decision in the village, they flipped a coin, and the settlement became known as Burk’s Falls. The Village of Burk’s Falls was eventually incorporated in 1890.In the 1879 Guide Book and Atlas of Muskoka and Parry Sound Districts, the author notes that Burk’s Falls “seems destined to develop into a thriving village”. In the decades following, the people of Armour, Ryerson and Burk’s Falls built homes, farms, roads, bridges, churches, and small businesses to serve the needs of settlers and a growing seasonal influx of tourists. Small settlements like Starrat, Midlothian, Katrine, and Chetwynd grew up, opened post offices and built schools to serve their growing population. The establishment of steam navigation from Burk’s Falls through Lake Cecebe to Magnetawan and on to Ahmic Lake and the arrival of the railway in 1885 speeded settlement and the flow of goods to enable it and the tourism that followed. The area thrived and population increased slowly but steadily, despite the deadly flu epidemic of 1919 and two world wars, which took the lives of many of its sons and daughters. 5 JOHN FINLEY CONSULTING Final Report SAHEDC: Asset Inventory, Gap Analysis & Market Study Agriculture, forestry, lumber mills, steam navigation as well as a few manufacturers were the traditional mainstays of the economy. As more and better roads were constructed, increasing numbers of tourists visited the area every summer, some buying property and building cottages and camps. School buses spelt the end of the one-room schoolhouse and many smaller settlements disappeared. Since the days of Tom Thompson and the Group of Seven, our area, sitting on the doorstep of Algonquin Park, has been home to artists and artisans, outdoor adventurers and innovative and visionary entrepreneurs inspired by the beauty of their natural surroundings. Today a large percentage of the population of South Almaguin is employed in trucking, manufacturing, construction and tourism but recent improvements in highway transportation and in high speed communication have provided residents of Burk’s Falls, Armour and Ryerson with new opportunities and challenges. This study will begin to address many of these challenges and focus on the means to maximize our great natural advantages and our human potential. The South Almaguin Highlands Economic Development Committee was formed to address these challenges and opportunities for Burk’s Falls, Ryerson and Armour. In June of 2013 an Economic Development Plan was finalized and this study has been commissioned as a first step. The study will provide an asset inventory, market study, and gap analysis which will form the basis for recommendations to update the Strategic Economic Development Plan. In the past many worthwhile and valuable studies have been commissioned by the three councils but without a body to act on their recommendations, implement them, and provide long-term follow up and political support, they have largely been ignored. We congratulate the councils of Burk’s Falls, Armour and Ryerson on having established South Almaguin Highlands Economic Development Committee and for hiring Dave Gray as Community Development Officer to provide continuity to your economic development efforts. The start-up funding for this initiative have been generously provided through a program administered by the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. 6 JOHN FINLEY CONSULTING Final Report SAHEDC: Asset Inventory, Gap Analysis & Market Study 1.2 Methodology Used in this Study Meeting with Decision Makers An important part of the work has been sitting down and talking with key decision- makers in the community. John Finley, President of John Finley Consulting, together with Dave Gray, have conducted interviews with political and community leaders who are in a position to make change happen. Their general views and priorities, together with areas of consensus are detailed in Section 3.1 of the Environmental Scan. Research Best Practices We have conducted research into success strategies and best practices from a number of municipalities and relevant jurisdictions in Ontario and other provinces. Our intention was to discover what has worked well in the context of what could work well in South Almaguin Highlands. While many “successes” are chronicled in municipal and provincial publications, as well as in popular media, they are frequently based on financial, environmental and business factors that are not common to our area. We have, therefore, sorted the wheat from the chaff and have provided some models that could well serve as examples for our area. These results are discussed in Section 3.2. We have created a catalogue of current investment information. This includes a survey of all community assets in Section 4 as well as a directory of businesses in the Burks Fall, Armour and Ryerson area in Appendix A. Available commercial real estate and idled structures are also included in Appendix A.