Newfoundland and Labrador Product Development Strategy

- 222 -The agency would enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with ACOA and HNL toprovide for co-ordinated efforts where appropriate. (This was recently done in PEI, where theProvince, ACOA and TIAPEI established a similar MOU.)The agency would be guided by a board of directors of senior people appointed by its sponsors –HNL, DTCR, DITRD and perhaps ACOA (unless they wanted to stay at arm’s length). Wesuggest two representatives from the Tourism Marketing Council should also be on the board.The Board would not be a ‘representative’ group of all the stakeholders in the province; rather itwould be made up of representatives appointed by its partner organizations. Ideally these wouldbe appropriately knowledgeable people able to provide strong leadership to the agency.The appropriate senior and other staff from DTCR’s Strategic Product Development Divisionwould be seconded to the agency, as would a few development professionals from DITRD. TheDTCR people can bring the tourism, market and strategy perspective, ITRD a business/ROIperspective.The agency would be given appropriate mandates for product development, along with thebudgets to go with them, transferred from the departments currently having those mandates.It would focus its proactive efforts on top-down development (market/opportunity/strategydriven),while DITRD would continue to focus on bottom-up (industry/community-driven)development initiatives. The agency would also assist qualified strategic projects brought to itfor assistance and support.The staff seconded to the agency need, in due course to be appropriately qualified with the rightskills for the job. The agency staff would need to be trained on entrepreneurial development,market opportunities, etc. to be able to play a leadership role in top-down development. DITRDpeople need to be trained on tourism and community tourism development.FundingThe agency would be funded by several sources, in fact, the rationale for such an organization, inaddition to its special-purpose, focused role, would be based in its ability to tap into bothtraditional and non-traditional sources of funding for a development agency. We suggest thefollowing mix of sources:o Secondments of staff from DTCR and DITRD, along with the budgets that go with them,plus offices and administrative supporto Annual government budgeted contributions, both financial and in-kind serviceso Negotiated joint project and program funding with other agencies, including ACOA. Infact, in the case of the Regional DMOs and sector alliances, their funding could beflowed from ACOA through the agency to those organizations under a suitablearrangement. The benefit of this is ensuring effective coordination.o Participation fees for its programs and services, where feasibleTHE ECONOMIC PLANNING GROUP of Canada Newfoundland & Labrador Tourism Product DevelopmentD. W. Knight Associates Strategy and Accommodation Needs Study