The Blue Mountains council has provided its thumbs up for continued work on the Beaver Valley Sustainable Tourism Strategy.
At its committee of the whole meeting on July 8, council voted unanimously to endorse a memorandum of understanding between the partners working to develop a coordinated tourism strategy for the entire Beaver Valley area.
The Blue Mountains is partnered with the Municipality of Grey Highlands, Grey County and RTO7: BruceGreySimcoe on the project.
The partners have collaborated to create a memorandum of understanding to guide the project.
At the meeting, Tim Hendry - the town’s manager of communications and economic development - presented the memorandum of understanding to council for endorsement.
“We felt it was important to bring this forward to council,” said Hendry, who noted that both Grey Highlands and Grey County have approved the memorandum document.
The project partners are working to implement the tourism strategy for Beaver Valley over the next four years (2024 - 2028). The memorandum of understanding outlines the principles the four partners will use to do this work.
They include:
- That all partners agree to work collaboratively to implement the actions and goals outlined in the strategy.
- That the project partners agree to respect the roles and responsibilities of the other partner organizations.
- That the project partners agree to share information with other project team members, to ensure that all partners are fully informed related to items that could impact the project implementation.
- That all partners recognize that no one organization is deemed to be the lead for this project, and that all partners share equal responsibility in working to achieve the desired outcomes.
- That all partners ensure that the principles of the Beaver Valley Sustainable Tourism Strategy are considered in any work undertaken by the respective partners outside the parameters of this project.
- That all partners commit to exploring opportunities to leverage resources (cash and in-kind) to achieve greater impact and increase the collective impact of projects being undertaken.
- That all partners agree to work collaboratively to source grants and funding to enhance the project outcomes.
- That this MOU does not preclude any of the project partners from undertaking their own work in this space.
The resolution approved by council, also stated that future financial requests for the project will come forward during the annual budget process. Hendry said council would see budget requests in years two and three of the project. He said for the first year there are no budget asks as the partners work on the “foundational aspects” of the project.
Coun. June Porter asked how the group would be reporting back to the three councils on their progress. Hendry said the goal will be to organize a joint meeting of the council’s to discuss the progress on the project.
“Measurement is a key component of any strategy,” he said.
