Date of Issue: October 23, 2020
Date of Closing: November 3, 2020 5 PM EST
Expression of Interest Responses Should Be Directed to:
Kathryn Wood, Eastern Ontario Leadership Council (EOLC) Project Coordinator at: kwood4297@gmail.com
Who We Are:
The Eastern Ontario Leadership Council (EOLC) is a partnership of five regional organizations, tasked with provide strategic guidance, advocacy and coordination for foundational economic development activities that benefit the region as a whole. In particular, the EOLC helps to ensure that resources are in place to support --- and bring attention to --- regional economic development activities. In particular, the EOLC stimulates research, analysis and collaborative projects that improve the overall business climate in Eastern Ontario
Background to the EOI:
A region-wide review of labour force commuting patterns in Eastern Ontario reveals that a significant share of the region’s 482,000-strong commuter base force travels back and forth to an entirely different census division for work purposes (26%). And a very large share (89%) is travelling by car. Roughly 60% of commuters are in the rural areas of Eastern Ontario, where conventional public transit does not exist.
At the same time, there is both anecdotal and statistical evidence to suggest that (at least before COVID) employers were reporting considerable difficulty in finding the workers they needed, and, that there were discernable signs of labour shortages (highly variable across the region).
In October of 2019, the EOLC’s Integrated, Intelligence Transportation System Working Group (I2TS) received notice that its funding application to the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development for a Commuter Strategy project had been approved. The original plan for the project --- and still the project mandate --- was to analyze cross-boundary commuter traffic, estimate demand for new or modified services that would improve labour mobility, and engage both clusters of communities and transportation service providers in testing solutions.
Next Steps:
Organizations with an interest in participating in the pilot project process are invited to signal that interest by providing the EOLC I2TS Working Group with basic information about any commuter transportation service being contemplated in a specific part of the region.
