Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff, along with Chatham-Kent senior staff, is hosting an online discussion on April 17, from 8:30 am to 9:30 am.
The goal of the meeting is to discuss economic recovery and to bring community leaders together from a wide variety of businesses from the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.
“It is imperative that we strategically plan so that we come out of this crisis better and stronger,” Canniff said in a media release. “We have discussed this at council and already implemented steps to counter the impact of this unprecedented situation. The Economic Development team has been reaching out to businesses across Chatham-Kent on a regular basis over the past several weeks. In addition, the Building and Planning Departments have been assisting businesses to follow through with plans for construction and development.”
The mayor added, “Now is the time to hear from everyone. We want to listen and learn so that we can develop a strategy for the future.”
The online facilitated event and will use a combination of tools including an interactive application called Thought Exchange, will look at:
- Economic impacts of COVID-19;
- Identify pain-points and opportunities for businesses;
- Discuss ways that we can plan together for economic recovery; and
- The opportunity to form a task force with potential sub-groups.
The feedback from this discussion will help determine next steps the municipality and businesses can take, opportunities for informed discussion important to industry, and tactics that businesses can integrate into their recovery plans.
John Norton, General Manager, Chatham-Kent Community Development said, “Our challenge is to help businesses successfully come out of this COVID-19 crisis. We laid out an ambitious growth strategy in the first part of 2020. This growth strategy will now need to be retooled in light of the economic impact of COVID-19. In the same way, some businesses might have to pivot towards new ways of doing things. It’s time to reach out to the community to get their thoughts on next steps.”
To register for this event, please visit www.investck.ca or e-mail karenl@chatham-kent.ca.
