1. What are the issues Archibald must address?
2. Who are the key stakeholders and what influence do they have?
3. What were Archibald's key assets as he took on the job? What were his key risks?
4. What should he aim to accomplish in his first meeting with his new minister?
5. Whom should he attempt to enlist as key allies?
6. Outline a short- and medium-term action plan for Archibald to follow.

FEDDEV ONTARIO Connor Lyon wrote this case under the supervision of Professor Paul Boothe and Richard Decemi solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to Mustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality. This publication may not be transmitted, photocopied, digitized or otherwise reproduced in any form or by any means without the permission of the copyright holder. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey Business School, Westem University, London, Ontario, Canada, NEG ON; (1) 519.661.3208; (e) cases@ivey.ca; www.iveycases.com Copyright @ 2014, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation Version: 2014-07-17 It was the evening of August 16, 2009, and Bruce Archibald was preparing for the demanding week ahead. Three days earlier, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had announced the establishment of the Federal Development Agency for Southern Ontario, FedDev Ontario, and appointed Archibald as its president (see Exhibit 1). The prime minister's announcement at a press conference in the town of Cambridge came at a time when the region was hard hit by the global recession. Archibald considered the challenges he faced in setting up the new agency. While some interim work had been done in preparing for the announcement, many key decisions were yet to be made. Mired in a deep recession, the Ontario economy urgently needed support. Further, the Conservative minority federal government was looking ahead to the next general election and hoping that Southern Ontario voters would be the key to unlocking their first majority. Archibald pondered his upcoming meeting with his new minister, Gary Goodyear. He knew that the rookie minister would be expecting both concrete plans to get the agency up and running, and early announcements about using the economic stimulus funds it had been allocated in the federal budget. BRUCE ARCHIBALD Archibald grew up on the Niagara Peninsula in Southern Ontario. He held a PhD in Environmental Toxicology from the University of Guelph and was an experienced provincial public servant. No stranger to economic development, he had served as Ontario's deputy minister for International Trade and Investment the previous year. He was excited by the opportunity to help pull the province out of recession but recognized the risks he faced in navigating the bureaucratic and political challenges that lay ahead. ONTARIO AND THE GLOBAL RECESSION The financial crisis that gripped North America and Europe in 2009 had triggered a global recession. The growing financial integration of economies over the previous decades had led to a collective weakening when the powerful U.S. economy faltered in the fall of 2008. This was especially true for Canada, theUnited States' largest trading partner and the source of many of its imports. Located just north of North America's Great Lakes, Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was the primary funnel for trade to and from the northeastern United States. Through 2009, the economy of Southern Ontario was contracting and doing so at a pace that exceeded the rest of the country. Faltering demand from the struggling U.S. economy had hit Ontario's manufacturing sector hard, and the province's negative economic performance had become a growing political issue in the spring and summer of 2009. The recession had led to the highest level of unemployment in over 15 years, with nearly 10 per cent of the workforce out of a job. The Windsor-London-Toronto corridor was especially affected by the significantly weakened U.S. demand for automobiles. For the first time in Canada's history, Ontario had become a "have not" province, i.e., a recipient of federal equalization payments. Archibald knew that action was urgently needed CANADA'S REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES From the 1950s onwards, the Canadian government had established a variety of regionally focused economic development programs to address government priorities across the country. While initially designed to serve specific sectors in need, these regional development agencies (RDAs) had evolved to provide investment in social capital, such as public education systems, and infrastructures for innovation, such as technology incubators and cluster arrangements. Their policy purpose was largely to encourage economic diversification and collaboration between private sector and public sector organizations. RDAs played a key role in bridging federal economic priorities and regional needs and supported federal policies to build regional capacity to achieve national economic goals. They also served a key political function for the government in power, providing a flexible mechanism to generate high profile loans and grants to businesses and communities and corresponding announcements for government ministers and members of Parliament (MPs). For these reasons, nearly all regions of the country were supported by a dedicated RDA. The establishment of FedDev Ontario completed the national coverage of RDAs and provided the government with a valuable platform to address the economic crisis facing Southern Ontario in 2009. CREATING FEDDEV ONTARIO In response to the worsening economic situation in early 2009, the federal government launched a $40 billion short-term stimulus package in its budget called the Economic Action Plan (EAP). The EAP was designed to promote sustainable economic growth, job creation and innovation, and it carried a mandate to specifically address economic challenges in the hardest hit regions of the country. Included in the EAP was the plan to create two new RDAs - the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor) and the Southern Ontario Development Agency (SODA). Though it would be renamed "FedDev Ontario" before its public launch in August, SODA was to distribute more than $1 billion over five years to "support economic and community development, innovation and economic diversification, with contributions to communities, businesses and non-profit organizations." At the August 13 press conference, Prime Minister Harper stated that "This new agency will help "Canada's Economic Action Plan: Budget 2009. Public Works and Government Services Canada, " Government of Canada, 2009, p. 182.Southern Ontario's communities, workers and businesses position themselves to take advantage of existing new economic opportunities when the recovery eventually and inevitably takes hold." In the six months between notice of SODA's creation (in the federal budget) and FedDev Ontario's launch, a basic framework was developed for the new agency. A team of Industry Canada executives mapped out preliminary human resource and information technology (IT) requirements. They gathered a skeleton staff to find existing programs delivering stimulus spending that would be transferred to FedDev Ontario upon its eventual creation. Preliminary plans were developed for the interim organization's governance and IT systems that would then be shifted from Industry Canada to FedDev Ontario. Uncertainty surrounded the interim planning, however. The general purpose for the agency had been laid out in the budget, but no final decision had been made prior to launch on important items such as vision, mission, objectives and specific priorities. The appointment of a president, agreement on the Kitchener location and the name of FedDev Ontario were only finalized days before the prime minister's August announcement. Thus, the bulk of staff recruitment, organizational infrastructure and program planning were left to the new president. Questions also remained as to how the agency was to coordinate with other government departments. FedDev Ontario was a new player in the federal, provincial and municipal political ecosystem, and it would have to find its place among them. Given the wide-ranging impact of the global recession on the province, many people were interested to see how FedDev Ontario's five-year $1 billion budget was to be deployed. Importantly, this critical element - the method of program delivery - was also left up to the new president LOOKING AHEAD Archibald considered the challenges that lay ahead as he prepared for his upcoming meeting with Minister Goodyear. He knew he would need to gain the confidence of his rookie minister and political staff while developing a three-month short-term plan to get up and running as well as a one-year longer term plan to grow the agency and develop its programs. Expectations of both program and political success were high, and Archibald knew that the new voyage on which he was embarking would be the riskiest of his career.EXHIBIT 1: ANNOUNCEMENT As I noted in the last election, in Canada, when virtually all other parts of the country have faced similar challenges, we have developed regional strategies to support them. This legacy of interdependence is represented by federal, regional, economic development organizations like the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Canada Economic Development Agency for the Regions of Quebec, Western Economic Diversification Canada, and the Federal Economic Development Initiative of Northern Ontario. As the industrial hub of our country, Southern Ontario should be similarly served. So it is my pleasure to officially announce today the creation of the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario or, as it will be known by its short title, FedDev Ontario. I am pleased to announce that the new minister responsible for this agency will be the minister of state for science and technology, the Member for Cambridge, the Honorable Gary Goodyear. FedDev Ontario will coordinate federal programming to support economic development, innovation and diversification throughout the regions of Southern Ontario. In doing so, this new agency will help Southern Ontario's communities, workers and businesses position themselves to take advantage of exciting new economic opportunities when the recovery eventually and inevitably takes hold. As Winston Churchill once noted, difficulties mastered are opportunities won. Source: Prime Minister Stephen Harper, speech presented in Cambridge, Ontario on August 13, 2009