Feature Stories

Turning the Page After a Year Like No Other

Writing that 2020 was a year like no other is quickly becoming a tired cliché.

We’ve all lived it. Everyone shared the unnatural challenges of physical/social distancing. Many made significant sacrifices. For businesses, it was – and remains – a struggle. In my business, economic development and investment promotion, our core focus – attracting quality foreign direct investment – essentially ground to a halt. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, global FDI fell 42% in 2020. In Canada, FDI was down over 50%. Saying conditions weren’t ideal would be a ridiculous understatement.

We’ve had enough doom and gloom. Indeed, it’s time to focus on a more positive year ahead.

A Revolution in Manufacturing is Underway

This might surprise you: in 2020, Waterloo EDC helped bring over $200 million of investment into our community. While FDI shut down, the need for medical supplies became dire and companies like The Canadian Shield and Eclipse Automation stepped up. We helped them pivot.

Medical products are just the leading edge of a manufacturing revolution that is happening in real time. We needed medical products right away, so we developed the capacity, but COVID-19 taught the manufacturing industry that supply chain resilience is paramount.

Manufacturers are looking to near-shore or re-shore key parts of their supply chains – move them closer to where their plants and their customers are – and Waterloo Region is ideally positioned to take advantage. We’re right in the middle of Canada’s largest manufacturing corridor, right beside Canada’s largest consumer market and within a one day’s drive of America’s biggest cities. What makes us unique is our strength in robotics and automation, which can make manufacturing in Canada both cost-competitive and de-risked against lower-cost jurisdictions overseas. With the East Side Lands coming online, we’re looking at having the location, capacity and expertise to add substantial new investments in the coming years.

Roaring 20s Redux?

There’s an incredible amount of pent-up consumer demand right now. In March, The Globe and Mail reported that Canadians were planning to spend big on travel, home improvements and the type of recreation that just isn’t possible until COVID-19 is under control. The Bank of Canada thinks Canadians have saved nearly $180 billion in the last year. This isn’t a Canadian phenomenon, either.

This might lead to this century’s version of the Roaring 20s, where consumer spending and the resulting business growth is transformative. On a local level, this will benefit those service providers and small businesses that were able to weather the COVID-19 storm. On an international level, this will help local companies sell products and services to a strong global market.

Victory Loves Preparation: We Must Be Ready

When the Roaring 2020s begin, we need to be ready to bring new FDI to Waterloo Region and expand local businesses to meet new opportunities. For Waterloo EDC, that means continuing to fill a pipeline of potential investment opportunities that is currently topping $1 billion. For businesses, it means considering how a sudden boost to the economy might affect you. Will you need to expand, upgrade your products and services, invest in technology and productivity tools to move up the value chain?

For our community, it also means identifying and strengthening our brand. This era of extra opportunity is exciting, but it will come with fierce competition as well. We need to know what we offer companies wanting to come here. We need to know what we offer talent, which, more than ever, can now choose to live wherever it wants.

Together, we can turn the page and make the most of the opportunities that last year’s challenges have given us.

Let’s get to work.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tony LaMantia, Waterloo EDC

Tony LaMantia is President & CEO of Waterloo Region Economic Development Corporation. A University of Waterloo alumnus, Tony’s had executive roles in investment marketing, technology sales and mining, as well as the public sector where he was ADM of Investment and Industry (Ontario).

Tourism & Hospitality: There’s No Place like Home

It’s no secret the pandemic has hit the tourism industry particularly hard. Every sector – business events, travel trade, sport, leisure – has faced a year filled with shutdowns, cancellations and postponements.

Minto Schneider is the CEO of Explore Waterloo Region (EWR) and has worked together with her team to advocate for and assist the local tourism industry. “Our industry was essentially shut down from March 16th through mid-June with some attractions not allowed to open at all,” she says. “From a job-loss perspective, the accommodation and food services sectors saw employment drop from 17.9K people employed in March of 2020 to 7.9K in December."

With vaccination rollout now underway there is light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. While this is very good news, Schneider says there’s still a long way to go until the tourism industry sees full recovery. “Until we open our borders, have a greater percentage of the population vaccinated and people are more confident that travel is safe, we will continue to be in recovery,” she says.

Tourism Recovery begins at Home

In the meantime, Schneider says the team at EWR is working on programs to help support local tourism sectors. To date the focus has been on local leisure tourism – encouraging people living in the region to explore their own backyards and support local businesses. An about-face for EWR (where marketing to visitors from outside the region was its mandate prior to covid), they've discovered that developing local tourism ambassadors (or Insiders) has been a successful way of sharing its Explore Safely at Home message. Moving forward these insiders will continue to play a key part in promoting the region to outside visitors by sharing their authentic stories of ‘you-need-to-be-here' attractions as travel to the region re-opens.

The idea of utilizing local tourism ambassadors is now being rolled over into the Business Events and Travel Trade sectors. EWR has created a new project called Home Advantage – an initiative designed to encourage local businesses and organizations to hold their meetings, events and tournaments in Waterloo Region.

How Home Advantage works

“The idea of encouraging locals to be ambassadors and invite business colleagues, associations, and other organizations to host an event in Waterloo Region is not new,” Schneider says. “However, we believe the time is right to get this message out again to provide an essential boost to this sector. People want to help – they want to see businesses in our region survive and thrive. One way to support them is to invite events to take place here.”

Messaging for the Home Advantage program also provides a reminder that Waterloo Region has the necessary infrastructure and supports in place to create successful meetings, events and sport tournaments - right in our own backyard.

“Not only do we have quality meeting venues and indoor/ outdoor facilities, but organizers also have the advantage of working with a hometown team of planning experts who can provide individualized attention to detail that they may not find in a larger city,” Schneider explains. “We’re home to 3 post-secondary institutions, and we’re also centered in Ontario’s high-tech corridor, which means planners have access to many sought-after industry insiders and keynote luminaries, who also call this region home.”

Similar to the local leisure sector’s insider program, the team at EWR hopes Home Advantage will develop local business ambassadors who will share the advantages of meeting in Waterloo Region.

“This really is a premiere event destination,” Schneider says. “Home Advantage will help showcase the benefits of meeting here as our industry recovers and beyond.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Susan Cook-Scheerer

Susan Cook-Scheerer is the Content and Media Liaison at Explore Waterloo Region, the region's destination marketing organization.

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We value diversity in the workplace, are committed to Employment Equity and will provide reasonable workplace accommodation to applicants with disabilities. RBC Dominion Securities Inc.* and Royal Bank of Canada are separate corporate entities which are affiliated. *Member-Canadian Investor Protection Fund. RBC Dominion Securities Inc. is a member company of RBC Wealth Management, a business segment of Royal Bank of Canada. ®Registered trademarks of Royal Bank of Canada. Used under licence. ©2017 RBC Dominion Securities Inc. All rights reserved. 17_90561_001

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