Dear Editor,
The Township of Whitewater Region hired a home-grown Economic Development Officer (EDO) that was very successful during his contract period. Why did our new council add qualifications that exclude him from applying for the permanent position?
Multiple new businesses are buying property in the Whitewater Industrial Park. The last time a business bought land in the park was over 30 years ago! On several occasions he spoke to me about relocating my business to Whitewater Region. It makes sense and I am considering this.
Council has now added some hard-to-find qualifications to the permanent economic development position. A degree in Planning with three years experience is listed first in qualifications. They posted this dual role position but were unable to find a suitable candidate. Then they tried again but were targeting planning professionals exclusively.
Whitewater Region needs an experienced marketer to attract new business and help our business community. If they hire a Planning Professional to market Whitewater Region there is no way we will see the same success that our home-grown guy was achieving. Is economic development important to council or was “economic development” just a catch phrase used to get elected.
I hope Council chooses to start showing some support for our local professionals, especially when they are getting such good results
Long time resident, taxpayer and business owner,
Mark Smith,
Pembroke
