Growing the Regina region through Tourism and Industry Development

2015 Annual ReportRegina Regional Opportunities Commission

2015 ReviewOur approach in 2015 to achieving our strategic intent was to focus on the lead practice economic development methodology of identifying industries in the region that best support high growth sectors. This is typically associated with advancing existing hubs or clusters of companies from a specific sector or industry whose geographic proximity contributes to: lowering supply costs, exporting, improving research and development collaboration and that enhances the development of a skilled work force.

This economic development lead practice method includes undertaking the necessary supply/value chain analysis, and then engaging in the cultivation of a participatory, stakeholder-driven growth strategy for these hubs (e.g. Fabricated Metal Manufacturing and the Agri-Value Processing industries).

We have strengthened our engagement of the tourism sector, enhanced destination marketing, and been successful in attracting high value events, conventions, and tradeshows to the Regina region.

In 2015 we also engaged in the development of an industry-led Events, Conventions & Tradeshows (ECT) infrastructure supply chain analysis – and with its tourism partners further advanced the identification and development of opportunities for enhanced regional Tourism growth.

The year concluded with a change in status of our organization to a not-for-profit corporation, and to change our name to Economic Development Regina Inc (EDR).

This is more than a name change. The new name is symbolic of an evolution RROC had been undergoing for some time. We felt it was time to strengthen and formalize that evolution through a new structure and revamped organizational vision. We believe that for our community to reach its full potential, economic development must be a collaborative effort rather than just an activity, program, or service. Through our new structure, our sector specialists and business development initiatives, we will strive to provide Regina’s business community and many stakeholders with the information and tools to help grow our regional economy.

Regina Regional Opportunities Commission Board of Directors-2015Murad Al Katib EDR Chair President and CEO AGT Food and Ingredients Inc.

Frank Hart, EDR Vice-Chair President and Managing Director Greystone Managed Investments Inc.

Tony Coppola Chief Operating Officer MacPherson, Leslie & Tyerman

Neil Donnelly CEO Conexus Arts Centre (completed service with board)

Michael Fougere Mayor City of Regina

Dale Griesser President Avison Young Commercial, Real Estate

Rick Krieger Owner McNally’s Tavern (completed service with board)

Mark Lang Partner KPMG LLP

Cari Lemieux Saskatchewan Operations Manager, d3h hotels General Manager, Days Inn East Regina

Marla Preston Hospitality Consultant

Vianne Timmons President and Vice-Chancellor University of Regina

New Members for 2016:Jason Drummond, Managing Partner, York Plains Investment Corp.

Marty Klyne, Chief Operating Officer, Queen City Sports & Entertainment Group

David Brundige, Q.C. Willows, Wellsch, Orr & Brundige, LLP

Message from the Chairman and President & CEOIn 2014 we set out a new direction, which included a concentrated two-year implementation plan. We chose a strategic focus on areas of intent in order to create momentum and achieve long-term focus. This approach targets growth opportunities as opposed to responding to them, and is focused on value-added and diversification opportunities. The board, management, and staff take our mandate very seriously and feel our plans are very well aligned with the city’s Official Community Plan.

Our partnership and relationship between the City continues to grow and become stronger. The board and management are unanimous in our confidence and remain committed to the transformational changes and direction we articulated.

2015 is the first year of a two year transformation strategy and was a foundational year for our organization.

We know our success is dependent on our relationships and partnerships. We now have over 20 MOUs and partnerships with key stakeholders including the Saskatchewan Manufacturing Council, University of Regina, Global Transportation Hub (GTH) and a new partnership with the Regina Hotel Association(RHA) that saw them increase their investment in us and moved us to a true partnership model with one of our primary joint focuses being ECT attraction.

The City’s investment was critical, first to get us out of the gate to advance the Sector Strategy forward and second, as our value proposition grows, we fully anticipate actively increased investment from other stakeholders in future years.

As a result of establishing 20+ new partnerships, our output has increased and we received more than $700,000 in partnership revenue and value in kind in 2015. A big part of this new investment is a direct result of regaining the confidence of many of our stakeholders but also finding initiatives we equally value and are prepared to contribute to.

Examples include the RHA’s increased direct investment of $225,000 plus and additional investment of $170,000 for event and convention attraction; $60,000 by various Tourism partners for Co-op Marketing, cash and in kind from several industry partners to advance the sector strategies or specific programing.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our departing board members, Neil Donnelly and Rick Krieger. Their commitment to our organization has been gratefully appreciated.

The last year has been productive and remarkable for the many key accomplishments we achieved. None of it would have been possible without the outstanding guidance of our board, and the total commitment of our entire team. Thank you to everyone for your contributions.

Sincerely,

Murad Al Katib John D. Lee

Chair of the Board President & CEO

20133,800

hotel rooms

Reginanow has

Population grew by 12,000

Population of

270,000by

2020

2,000New Jobs created

EconomicImpact of

GDPIncrease of$467M/yr

6,942New Homes

Builts

2015

Confer

ence

Bo

ard

of C

anada

$408Million

GDP$14.07Billion

Over6,500employees

$6.8in sales

Manufacturing

Billion

CMA Highlights

2015 Sector Strategy HighlightsEnterprise Sectors

» Developed a business retention/growth strategy based on strategic sectors where the Regina region has a distinct advantage; initial sectors include Metal Fabrication Manufacturing and Agri-Business. The Metal Fabrication Manufacturing strategy was completed and work has begun on the Agri-Food Processing Supply Chain Analysis.

» Completed a best practice review assessing how economic development agencies best work with the food processing industry, and literature examining the western Canadian food processing industry.  This research will inform the Agri-Business Sector Strategy.

» Engaged business leaders and partners to enhance alignment and leverage efforts through the Regina Executive Leadership Outlook project which seeks thought leadership from a sample of 60-70 executives in Regina on a quarterly basis.

» Formed a Saskatchewan Intelligence Network to facilitate the sharing of key intelligence between agencies and organizations. Our Strategic and Competitive Intelligence (SCI) Office is operational producing new intelligence such as a quarterly Fabricated Metal Industry intelligence briefings and a review of ECT facilities and strategies in a number of Canadian cities that compete with Regina.

» Developed an investment attraction action plan that complements the needs of the existing Regina region business community with focus on sectors of strategic priority.

» Created new marketing materials including our new Regina Regional Economic Profile and completely refreshed and updated website.

» Established the Regina Entrepreneurial Council (REC) which will complete a Best Practice and Standard and Practice analysis of entrepreneurship in the region.

» Business Services has engaged in working with 213 Square One clients, 39 Saskatchewan Immigration Nominee Program (SINP) clients, and hosted 216 exploratory visits.

Enterprise18.4% of Regina’s GDP comes from energy and mining related activities

Manufacturing sector contributes $1.4B in GDP

Agri-Business sector contributes 2.9% of GDP

213 Square One clients

39 SINP clients

Awarded $110,000 from Western Diversification (WD) to run Innovation Skills and Capacity Building Program

2015 Sector Strategy HighlightsTourism Sector

» Tourism Regina continues to build on marketing the Regina region and saw significant increases across its platforms. Our marketing successes include:

» Facebook increase of 55.78%

» Web visits (sessions) increase of 18.96%

» Twitter Increase of 21.61%

» Through its 2015 online leisure advertising campaign Tourism Regina has made significant progress towards establishing the regional market as the primary customer market – resulting in significant activity increases from all geographic centres, especially Saskatoon (32%) and Medicine Hat (140%).

» Created an Activation program to identify collaboration opportunities with our key stakeholders through which visitor service programs can be created to provide visitors with an enhanced experience of Regina. In 2015 programs were created for Farm Progress, Regina Folk Fest, Baseball U21 National Championships, National Rugby Championships and Canadian Western Agribition. We were successful in activating over 12 events this year.

» Launched 3 new platforms: Hang with the Locals Blog, Instagram and Destination Regina e-Newsletter. The Newsletter has over 800 subscribers and Instagram has over 1,000 followers.

» In co-operation with RHA, Regina Airport Authority (RAA), and Canadian Western Agribition developed visitor kiosks to provide information about Regina. They received 1,071 visitors during the 7-day show.

» In collaboration with the Tourism Leadership Council, have engaged in the development of an Integrated Visitor Services model that will address the current gap in how visitors receive information about our city and all the many things there are to see and do.

Tourism2.2 million people visit Regina annually

$339.6 million in consumer spending in Regina

7,900 people employed in Tourism Industry

Tourism Regina facebook traffic increased 55.78%

Web visits/sessions saw increase of 18.96%

Instagram garnered over 1000 followers in first 6 months

2015 Sector Strategy HighlightsEvents, Conventions and Tradeshows (ECT) Sector

» Events Regina and Conventions Regina prepared 55 expressions of interest and bids to compete for future related business.

» The Events Regina and Conventions Regina teams secured 33 future national and international events and conventions throughout the year; dates span until 2020.

» The events and conventions secured will collectively attract approximately 11,000 visitors to the region with an estimated economic impact of $13 million, which will contribute 17,000 room nights.

» Prepared expression of interest and bid submissions for three large national and international events that would produce an estimated economic impact of over $25 million.

» In collaboration with the Alliance for Events, Conventions and Tradeshows, we completed a 2016 Strategy map with KPIs and defined targets for ECT growth in the region.

» Completed Phase 1 of the ECT Infrastructure Audit for major current and announced event and convention venues in Regina and region. During 2016, we will be investigating options for how the database can be further developed and leveraged by community partners.

ECTSecured 33 events representing an estimated economic impact of $13 million and 17,000 room nights.

690,000+ square feet of meeting and convention space

Supports over 4,200 jobs

2015 Corporate HighlightsOrganizational Highlights

» Implemented a scalable and fluid organizational structure that is responsive to external dynamics and new opportunities including appointment of a new Vice President responsible for Sector Strategy, reorganization of various staff roles and responsibilities, and strategic engagement of external consulting resources.

» Developed a long-term Business Plan that supports the Official Community Plan and completed the 2020 strategy map and balanced scorecard for the organization.

» Engaged with over 200 business and community leaders and 20 critical stakeholders in thought leadership discussions that informed EDR on opportunities to frame our 2016 priorities. These discussions occurred through CEO roundtables, alliance and outreach strategies.

» Launched Think Big Regina, our thought-leadership newsletter. It is currently sent to over 250 business leaders.

» Awarded a funding proposal from the City to support our work around articulating and promoting The Regina Advantage.

» The stakeholder engagement survey was completed and analysis presented to staff and board. Key findings were:

* There is strong support for EDR’s strategic direction

* A significant number of stakeholders indicated a lack of understanding or awareness of progress made

* We need to report regularly on progress, accomplishments and tangible results

* EDR must exhibit a bias for action focused on outcomes

* We are perceived to be strengthening relationships with stakeholders

* Stakeholders’ experience with EDR services is moderate

* Resource constraints are a pervasive theme, dictating the need to focus on priorities and explore opportunities for other sources of investment

» Continued to enhance relationships and develop new initiatives with strategic partners such as the Tourism Leadership Council, Alliance for Events, Conventions and Tradeshows, Entrepreneurial Council, Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Alliance, SMC, Tourism Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority (SREDA) and RHA.

» Additional revenue sources and investments from other stakeholders exceeded $700,000.

OrganizationalEngaged over 200 business/community leaders in thought leadership forums

Launched ThinkBig Regina e-newsletter with over 250 subscribers

Additional revenue exceeded $700,000

2015 Financial StatementREGINA REGIONAL OPPORTUNITIES COMMISSION

Statement of Operations

Year Ended December 31, 2015

2015 Budget 2015 2014

REVENUES

City of Regina core funding $1,719,473 $1,719,500 $1,122,900

City of Regina transition funding - - 163,620

Project funding 101,364 170,302 188,808

Partner contributions 491,750 533,678 247,139

Other income 30,598 37,220 84,808

2,343,185 2,460,700 1,807,275

EXPENSES

Administration 573,887 554,295 523,545

Enterprise 896,719 741,789 589,970

Tourism, Events, Conventions & Tradeshows 638,445 680,154 509,117

Corporate 234,134 246,875 251,934

Gain on disposal of asset - (220) -

2,343,185 2,222,893 1,874,566

EXCESS (DEFICIENCY) OF REVENUE OVER EXPENSES - 237,807 (67,291)

ACCUMULATED SURPLUS, BEGINNING OF YEAR 213,748 213,748 281,039

ACCUMULATED SURPLUS, END OF YEAR $213,748 $451,555 $213,748

Contact Us:Economic Development Regina Inc.

1925 Rose Street Regina, SK S4P 3P1 P: 306-789-5099 TF: 1-800-661-5099 F: 306-352-1630 E: info@economicdevelopmentregina.com

economicdevelopmentregina.com I tourismregina.com

Vision » The greater Regina region prospers as a vibrant and diversified economy for investors, a strong destination experience for visitors, and a place of choice with a high standard and quality of life for residents.

Our 2020+ Vision » Eight key sectors have emerged with sector teams who drive activity, awareness, intelligence and excellence.

» Events, Conventions and Tradeshows (ECT) drive over $50 million annually to the local economy.

» Regina, and surrounding region, is perceived to be the most desirable place to live and work in Canada.

» Citizens of Regina are bursting with confidence and pride for their city.

» EDR is a catalyst for driving economic growth and advancement in Regina and region.