During the rapidly exploding global economy of the 1990’s, I somehow found myself and my firm increasingly involved in the field of Economic Development, locally, provincially, nationally and internationally. It was during this time that we supported many community strategy and economic restructuring projects, including in Niagara Region, the city of Kingston, and the award-winning Parkdale-Liberty neighbourhood renewal in Toronto. I served for a time as the Chair of the Durham Region Economic Development Advisory Committee, as a Vice-chair of the Creating Futures campaign that ultimately led to the formation of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, represented our region at a Tri-lateral NAFTA Conference in Mexico, and rose to Second Vice-president of the Economic Developers Council of Ontario before business demands forced me to concentrate elsewhere. I also moderated some high profile events, including The Changing World of Work Symposium in York Region, and the first ever China Trade Think Tank session in Toronto.

A highlight for me during this time was the opportunity to apply what I like to call my ‘high-risk moderating’ skills to bring together three distinct and heretofore uncooperative interests to form a more coherent approach to attracting industrial growth and new investment into Ontario. The article shown here resulted from that work and was featured in the Economic Development Journal of Canada in 1997. The full article can still be accessed at: http://goo.gl/5zgOM6