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Business seeks a little more respect in this city
In July 2006, Vancouver City Council asked the Vancouver Economic Development Commission (VEDC) to come up with an economic development strategy for Vancouver. The first phase was to make recommendations on how to improve Vancouver’s business climate. To do that, the VEDC assembled a Blue Ribbon Council (BRC) of business leaders led by Sarah Morgan Sylvester to build on earlier CEO surveys on municipal business issues. The BRC was quick to agree with the VEDC’s ongoing concerns about our complacency: without shoring up the fundamental building blocks of our regional economy, we will have no resiliency when the economy inevitably moves into a down cycle. The Blue Ribbon Council pinpointed three themes worth highlighting here: Business doesn’t get enough respect in this city –“[There’s a] “lack of community consensus around the importance of a strong regional economy as one of the pillars of sustainability,” the BRC report says. “Businesses frequently feel their contribution to the City’s success is not fully recognized and appreciated … The VEDC and many others see a competitive business climate and a strong economy as the essential fiscal underpinning of our enviable quality of life; others perceive them as threats to our environment and sustainability.” That led to the recommendations for a regular forum for business leaders to connect with the mayor and council, and a request that the mayor, councillors and city staff just show up regularly at business events to better understand business issues. Council has already agreed to setting up the networking forum, and heard the call to show up at more events. I’m there. To ensure that economic and fiscal impacts are built into city decisions, the panel recommends the appointment of a senior city economist to gather data and “provide ongoing commentary and analysis.” The VEDC responds that it wants greater capacity for economic analysis at City Hall, but isn’t convinced that a new senior staff position is required. Get the region together: “Vancouver’s business climate is barely discernable from Metro Vancouver’s business climate, as many of the most important issues cannot be adequately solved by Vancouver alone,” says the report. This fact has been widely recognized, with two major initiatives now underway with co-operation from many of the municipalities in the region: a joint marketing effort at the Beijing Olympics this summer, and a collaboration on a single mobile business licence. Three municipalities – Vancouver, Surrey and Richmond – started this off with a memorandum of understanding, agreeing to work together on specified projects, contributing funding, project by project. It’s working. Six other municipalities have now signed on. That puts us well underway to a regional economic development coalition, something that’s eluded Metro Vancouver for decades. Reduce regulation and speed up decision-making: The standardized mobile business licence is part of this, with the VEDC already working with city staff to back off burdensome regulations for the trucking industry, such as requiring truckers to register in person rather than online. Next they’ll be looking at the food and beverage industry. The arrival of 311 service will go a long way to streamlining access to action at city hall. Starting in January 2009, it will provide a single phone portal to all City of Vancouver services. The 2010 boom has enabled this city to create new jobs at twice the rate of Toronto, but the crises hitting our forest industry will inevitably puncture the urban boom. Implementing these recommendations is key to keeping our city economically sustainable. • Peter Ladner (www.peterladner.ca) is a Vancouver city councillor and vice-president, Business in Vancouver Media Group,
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His column appears every two weeks. |
