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Prince Edward County is at a crossroads. Instead of tackling the real issues threatening our community’s future—jobs, economic stability, and infrastructure—Council continues to lose itself in endless debates over red tape and minor bylaws. The latest example is the disproportionate energy being poured into regulating STA rentals and heritage designation policies, while the County faces major employment crises.
Since 2018, when the County introduced an STA licensing regime, council and staff have repeatedly revisited the rules. A special Committee of the Whole meeting in August 2022 was dedicated entirely to STA licensing amendments. On September 20, 2025, Council once again approved a revamped STA bylaw after months of debate, staff reports, and public consultation. Local headlines focused almost exclusively on the bylaw changes. Or the ridiculous amount of time and tax dollars being spent on a “Cultural Heritage Master Plan” with an external consultant. This, recently in a local newspaper:
‘Councillor John Hirsch suggests that WSP consider including a discussion of using the Natural Core Area designation in the Official Plan as a tool to limit development on culturally significant land. “Natural Core Areas cover about a third of the County,” he noted. “They have the benefit of prohibiting major development where an OP amendment is required.” ‘
Here we have a Councillor suggesting to an external consultant what should be included in the paid Consultant’s report. And ofcourse, an audacious proposal to now have Council have jurisdiction over a third of natural areas. More discussion, more Council time. More tax dollars. These are just two examples, but they illustrate a pattern: STA regulation and Heritage matters routinely dominates agendas and consumes Council’s energy. Not the job crisis, disastrous road conditions and erosion of living standards of local families (the County Foundation’s Vital Signs report indicated that about one in four households in the wider Hastings Prince Edward region faced food insecurity in 2024).
Residents don’t need more rules
Residents don’t need more rules about where they can rent out a room, or yet another layer of bureaucracy dictating which properties fall under heritage oversight or what they want to do with their property or which areas should have heritage designations. They need leaders focused on the big picture: how to create and sustain year-round jobs that keep families here, provide stable incomes, and stop the outflow of young people to Belleville, Kingston, or Toronto.
Take the recent closure of Highline Mushroom in Wellington, which has left dozens of local families uncertain about their futures. Manufacturing, one of the County’s few steady salaried employers, is disappearing. At the same time, Heidelberg Materials’ cement plant in Picton—our last large-scale industrial operation—faces international pressures and long-term uncertainty. These should be alarms ringing loudly in Shire Hall, demanding a coordinated plan for job attraction and retention. Yet council seems consumed by whether short-term rentals should be capped at one or two bedrooms.
This fixation on micro-regulation reflects a wider problem: government control creeping deeper into community life, while ignoring economic fundamentals. Rules pile up on businesses, residents, and property owners, but no coherent strategy exists for growing the tax base or diversifying employment. Instead of removing barriers, Council appears to be adding new ones at every turn.
What makes this worse
What makes this worse is the time and money wasted. Consultants are hired to write lengthy reports about heritage master plans, cultural landscapes, or conservation guidelines—documents that do little more than slow down development and drain County coffers. All about rules to control and constrain residents. Hours of Council meetings are swallowed debating regulations that touch a handful of property owners, while larger issues like industrial attraction, agricultural modernization, or infrastructure investment receive token attention.
Contrast this with other municipalities in the region. Belleville has aggressively targeted new industries and attracted major employers in food processing and logistics. Quinte West has worked hand-in-hand with CFB Trenton to build its employment base. Even Napanee has focused on retaining and supporting small manufacturers. Prince Edward County, by comparison, seems more interested in controlling who can host tourists in their spare bedrooms than in building an economy that sustains 26,000 residents.
This imbalance is not just frustrating—it’s dangerous. Every hour spent tightening STA bylaws is an hour not spent preparing for the next factory closure. Every dollar spent on heritage designation studies is a dollar not invested in workforce training or industrial land readiness. Every ounce of political capital used to regulate how residents live is political capital not used to secure new employers.
Council must recalibrate
The County’s economic base is shrinking, its infrastructure is aging, and young families are leaving because they see no future here beyond seasonal tourism and low-wage service jobs. Red tape and bureaucratic control will not reverse this trend. Jobs, investment, and serious planning will.
The community deserves leadership that puts employment and prosperity first. Councillors should stop playing heritage police, stop micromanaging residents’ lives through endless bylaws, and start addressing the urgent question: how will Prince Edward County create the stable, well-paying jobs that will allow families to build a future here?
Until Council gets serious about jobs, all the heritage plans and STA restrictions in the world won’t matter. Because without employment, there is no sustainable community to protect.
What is needed
What is needed is a reset in priorities. The community cannot flourish on tourism and real estate alone. It needs stable, year-round jobs that come from manufacturing, food processing, logistics, and other industries that build wealth rather than extract it. Council should redirect its focus toward:
- Preparing serviced industrial lands.
- Advocating aggressively with the province and Ottawa for job-retention incentives.
- Developing partnerships with nearby municipalities to attract investment.
- Supporting training and workforce development to keep young people here.
Until then, residents should keep asking the hard question: why is Council spending countless hours regulating Airbnbs when our economy is at risk of losing its last major employers?
It’s time for leadership that values prosperity over red tape.
Discussions about economic development
By contrast, discussions about economic development—the attraction of employers, retention of manufacturing, preparation of industrial lands, or workforce development—rarely get the same visibility. The County did release an Economic Development Action Plan 2025–2030 earlier this year, which sets out strategic themes like supporting agriculture, tourism, and infrastructure readiness. But that document is a high-level plan, not a tangible set of job-creating actions. There have been no major announcements of new industrial employers, no serious debate about retaining manufacturing after the closure of Highline Mushroom, and no visible progress in diversifying the economy beyond tourism and real estate.
This imbalance matters. Every hour Council spends tightening STA bylaws is an hour not spent addressing how to replace the $34 million in annual wages that manufacturing once contributed, compared with the $20 million from accommodations and food services. Every dollar spent on consultants to fine-tune licensing is a dollar not invested in job attraction or infrastructure that could sustain real economic growth.
- STA regulation (licensing, by-law amendments, zoning changes) is a recurring, visible topic in PEC council and committee agendas. The special meeting on August 8, 2022 is a standout example where STA was the sole focus of that meeting. Prince Edward County Municipal Services
- Economic development efforts are also present — notably, the 2025–2030 Economic Development Action Plan showing that County staff are planning for growth, improving infrastructure, and supporting existing sectors. But those documents are more strategic in nature, less about immediate, concrete job attraction decisions or approvals. Prince Edward County Municipal Services
- There is a lack of clearly reported outcomes (i.e. “X new manufacturing businesses opened” or “Y new industrial jobs created”) in the same visible way as there are by-law or STA reforms.
The Evidence
What We Found: Council Minutes & Agendas (Recent / Relevant)
| Date / Meeting | STA / Airbnb / Bylaw Regulatory Items Highlighted | Economic Development / Jobs / Industrial Growth Items Highlighted |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 20, 2025 Regular Council Meeting | Council approved a new revised STA bylaw. This was a contentious issue, with multiple staff reports, public input, and bylaw amendments. | No prominent headline report in that same meeting about new manufacturing or major job attraction. The agenda and media coverage emphasize STA rules more than job strategies. |
| Early August 2022 (Committee of the Whole ‐ STA revisions) | Changes to the STA licensing program: secondary residences, increased fines, etc. Bylaws tightened. | There is less mention in the same period of large new industrial attraction or comprehensive job strategy in those minutes. |
| “Power to improve housing compliment with council’s reach”* | Article notes* resident concerns that council appears overfocused on regulating STAs and less on long-term housing for permanent residents or jobs. It frames STAs as one of the “top concerns.” | Points made about housing (affordable/long-term accommodation) and the need to support resident housing rather than tourist-focused regulation. This is more about housing availability than industrial job attraction—but it is an economic issue. |
| STA regime now in force (2022) | The initial licensing regime, followed by a pause on new “whole home” STA licenses, was publicized and debated. | Not much in that particular announcement focused on job creation; it focused on regulation of STAs. |
| Committee & Council Meetings schedule & Agendas | Multiple meeting agendas shown on County site regularly include STA/licensing/bylaw amendment items under “Planning / Licensing / Zoning” topics. | Also shows meetings under “Planning & Economic Development & Community Services (PECS)” committees. But I did not find summaries of how much time these committees allocate to job attraction vs regulatory items. |
What is Known (Red Tape Focus in Council)
- Short-Term Accommodations (STAs) Licensing & Regulation
- In 2018, the County established a licensing regime for STAs. Have Your Say
- A moratorium was placed on whole-home STA licences in September 2020 while the licensing program, zoning bylaws, and administrative penalties are reviewed. Have Your Say
- More recently, on September 20, 2025, Council approved a revamped STA bylaw after several heated discussions.
- In that bylaw, certain definitions (primary vs secondary residence STA, grandfathering, etc.) were clarified; existing STAs are grandfathered but no new licences for secondary residences will be issued.
- Ongoing Planning & Regulatory Reviews
- There has been ongoing staff work, reports, and public consultations around STA regulations. Have Your Say
- The County publishes agendas & minutes for Council, Committee of Whole, and other committees, which include STA topics among others. Prince Edward County Municipal Services
- Economic Development on the Agenda But Less Evident
- “Economic Development” initiatives appear in Council & Committee meeting agendas (via “Municipal & Community Development”, “PEC Affordable Housing Corporation”, etc.) Prince Edward County Municipal Services
- However, I didn’t find publicly‐available minutes or agenda items quantifying how much time was devoted to economic development vs how much time was devoted to bylaws like STAs.
* Picton Gazette article