City council has invested $25,000 to make Sandbox Centre a regional innovation centre (RIC) in Barrie, with hopes of hundreds of thousands of dollars in provincial money in return.
By direct motion June 19, council approved $25,000 from the city’s tax stabilization reserve to the Sandbox to pay for a professional consultant to support its proposal submission to the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade for an RIC in Barrie. The submission is due by July 9.
Mayor Alex Nuttall noted the last Ontario budget said the RIC would be in Barrie and the province wanted a homegrown organization.
“We are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars — if not $1 million — a year in funding allocated by the provincial government to the city of Barrie,” he said.
“This is the first one (RIC) that the province has funded in more than a decade,” said Stephannie Schlichter, the city’s director of economic and creative development.
RICs aid Ontario entrepreneurs and innovators succeed in international markets by helping them develop their ideas to make them marketable and attract talent, capital and customers.
RICs are also a catalyst for innovation in their communities, with the goal of connecting the ecosystem — academic, institutional and industry — and streamlining regional support for entrepreneurs.
Which fits with Sandbox Centre, located at 24 Maple Ave., above Barrie Transit Terminal. It provides a single location for entrepreneurs to meet, learn and mentor.
“By allowing the Sandbox to grow into a regional innovation centre, it allows the support of not just the startups, not just growth corporations, but mature corporations,” said Coun. Sergio Morales, council’s appointee to the Sandbox board. “The good news is there’s lots of funding, there’s lots of money, there’s lots of support.”
There are 17 RICs in Ontario, varying in size and focus. The closest one to Barrie to the south is in Markham and the closest north is in North Bay.
Their core services are not delivered within the Simcoe County area, resulting in different regional priorities that don’t align with central Ontario’s urban-rural focus, say city staff.
Coun. Gary Harvey, chairman of the city’s finance and good governance committee, said he supports city funding for the RIC proposal.
“I know I have spoken against giving (the Sandbox) money in the past for other things, but this is the one time I think it definitely makes sense,” he said. “The only way that they’re going to be able to put a robust (RIC) application forward is with this grant, the money to have a professional grant writer put the best foot forward.”
The RIC submission's requirements include a program delivery plan, business plan and methodology, measurement tools, budget, marketing and contingency plans.
Coun. Clare Riepma asked if there was another way to pay for the consultant, given the requests council receives for funding from other groups.
“How about a loan instead, so that when they (the Sandbox) receive the funding from the government for the RIC, they pay us back,” he said.
Nuttall said that wouldn’t work.
“The answer is no because this is part of the application process for funding from the provincial government,” the mayor said. “If they were to cover this (for the Sandbox), they would essentially have to cover every other application process, which they’re just not going to do, so we’re unable to do that piece (the $25,000) in terms of treating it as a loan.
“It’s either we say we’re going to support the Sandbox, or we say let’s wait and see what happens with the application process," Nuttall added.
Nuttall also said the Sandbox being Barrie’s RIC does not mean city funding stops flowing to it.
“I don’t think this means that we don’t provide funding for the Sandbox,” he said. “I think this means that we accept a ton of funding from the province of Ontario if they award, through this process, to the Sandbox.
“Does this reduce the amount we have to put in in the future? Maybe, maybe not,” Nuttall added. “But what it certainly does is it opens up a whole bunch of new doors we just haven’t had access to.”
On March 26, the Ontario budget announcement included an investment of $1 million per year starting in 2024-25 in the Ontario RIC network, including the launch of a new RIC in Barrie. On June 10, the province issued a call for proposals for establishing a Barrie RIC, with a submission deadline of July 9.
