City of Brantford Council discussed options to establish the framework to guide workplans toward the implementation of a downtown entertainment district during its Committee of the Whole, planning and administration meeting on Tuesday, December 10, 2024.
When Council approved the development of a Sport and Entertainment Complex in downtown Brantford on October 29, 2024, a recommendation was made to seek out options for a downtown entertainment district and report back by the end of the year.
During the meeting, a report prepared by Michael Bradley, CAO for the City of Brantford, came forward with two options to move forward with the recommendation.
“In the first option, staff will lead all research, planning and strategy to establish the framework to guide workplans towards the implementation of a downtown entertainment district,” read Bradley’s report. “This is staff’s recommendation as it is the most cost-effective approach and staff have the capacity and resources to lead this project.”
Economic Development Tourism and Cultural Initiatives staff would lead the project, however there would be cross-departmental involvement to ensure that the district will meet all departmental needs.
The second of the two options would have staff hire a consultant to do the work instead.
“This option has the benefit of gaining an outside perspective but extends both the cost and length of time it takes to complete the work,” read the report.”
In either case, staff and/or the consultant would be working to determine an appropriate boundary for the district, lead design and development, elevate current attractions or new programming, develop a marketing and branding strategy, ensure the accessibility of the downtown as well as the safety of the public, and provide support to local nearby businesses.
Councillor Rose Sicoli said that between the two options, while she had faith that City staff was more than capable of executing the work, she suggested that perhaps there was a hybrid option to split some of the work.
“So allowing City staff the freedom and the ability to kind of put together the strategy and the plan, but then maybe outsourcing the public engagement piece to make sure that we have, perhaps a local consultant out there, speaking to the public, and conducting focus groups,” said Sicoli. “Something a little bit more broad than our Let’s Talk Brantford Campaign.”
However, Councillors Mandy Samwell and Greg Martin, said they were happy to have to staff the entirety of the work.
“I feel very confident that our staff would do a great job with this and I’m happy to see, if this goes through, that we’re not spending additional money on consultants this time around,” said Samwell. “Not that I don’t think the consultants do a great job as well, but I do feel that our staff are very capable, and I’m sure that our communications staff could do a great job as well to go over and above what we’re doing now for consultation.”
Shortly after, Sicoli moved an amendment to hire a consultant, with the caveat that they hired someone who was local, for the consultation portion of the work.
Councillor Dan McCreary then explained that due to the procurement process, they wouldn’t be able to favour local talent.
“I’m not sure how we would manage to do that in terms of procuring services, I’m pretty sure we’re not allowed to favor local people over external people,” he said.
Later, Sicoli ultimately decided to remove the local portion of the amendment, but stressed the importance of a top notch engagement process.
“What this does is, it ensures top notch public engagement. I think there’s a lot of discussion out there about this and I think that something of this size deserves proper public consultation. I think it’s important that proper focus groups are conducted, proper public engagement pieces, and proper Let’s Talk Brantford campaigns. I think it goes beyond the scope of what we do, and I think it’s deserving of that.”
The amendment ultimately failed, and the vote to have staff carry on with option one and report back to council in Q3 of 2025, was carried 10-1.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
