Economic Development Advisory Committee

Committee Minutes

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Innovation Arena, Mike Stork Room
Present:
  • Councillor D. Schnider, Member
  • Councillor A. Owodunni, Member
  • Margaret Johnston
  • Chuck Howitt, Chair
  • M. Lam, Member
  • M. Krushack, Member
  • P. Kreutner, Member
  • J. Curto, Member
  • M. Bingeman, Member
  • Sarah Farwell
  • Carla Girolametto
  • Moazam Khan
  • A. Akbar, Member
Staff:
  • Cory Bluhm
  • Brian Bennett
  • N. Nandakumar, Committee Administrator
  • Aura Hertzog
  • Kristy Skelton
  • Lidia Feraco
  • Jennifer Sandoval Penilla
  • Naudia Banton

The meeting commenced at 11:10 a.m. Chaired by Chuck Howitt

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Brian Bennett, Manager of Business Development, City of Kitchener provided an introduction about Velocity and Health Innovation Arena (HIA) to the committee members.

He explained that the Innovation Arena is a collaboration space launched by the University of Waterloo and will serve as the home for Velocity, the University’s flagship startup incubator.

The committee members were taken on a guided tour of the Innovation Area by Moazam Khan, Director-Health of Velocity, who highlighted its layout and purpose. 

He shared the following key points with the members:

  • Key Area of Focus : Health Innovation
  • Velocity is a state-of-the-art facility with the largest concentration of health innovations in Canada.
  • Velocity also works in collaboration with existing hubs like Medical Innovation Xchange (MIX). 
  • Velocity offers product development labs, collaborative workspaces, manufacturing equipment available for turning prototypes into products. 

 

 

 

4.2

25 m
 

Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital announced in April 2024 their plan to merge into a single hospital organization. Sarah Farwell and Carla Girolametto from St. Mary’s General Hospital and Grand River Hospital presented to the members Building the Future of Care Together which is a joint project to build new a hospital infrastructure in Kitchener-Waterloo. 

They shared the following key points with the committee members:

  • Project Timeline - 
    • 2020-2021 :  Planning and consultations began for new and renewed infrastructure.
    • 2022 : Launched and Ontario Ministry of Health approved the $5M Capital Planning Grant
    • Spring – Summer 2024 : New Site announced at David Johnston Research + Technology Park on the University’s North Campus
    • Fall 2024 : Functional Programming, Branding and web redevelopment kicks off
    • April 2025 : Proposed Day 1: New, single Hospital organization
    • 2025+ : Ongoing merger and redevelopment work
  • They talked about Care Next Coalition - the new initiative with Grand River Hospital, St. Mary’s General Hospital and the University of Waterloo. 
  • This new partnership aims to Foster growth of health innovation through Ideation, Experimentation, Scaling and  Research (related to innovation)
  • Care NEXT would be carried out in 3 Phases beginning with recruiting a joint vice-president and chief health innovation officer.
  • This new partnership will help align the efforts of the Hospitals and the University to support research and improve focus on modern technologies and innovation.  

On motion, this meeting adjourned at 1:02 p.m.

Navitha Nandakumar
Committee Administrator

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