Whats Next for Economic Development? Story by Kris King The new year brings many new opportunities in our life. We get to mentally reset our clocks, wipe away the negative from the past year and move forward to our new legacy waiting to unfold. This New Year Golden Area Initiatives is dissolving their current form of operations. GAI is now awaiting a new form to assist the business and social economic development for our region. For the past 10 years Golden Area Initiatives-Community Economic Development Society, were set to the task to market and support business development, community & social economic development and immigration. GAI has been elusive to marketing to our own region as to what they have been up to. However, you may have seen, heard or use some of the following projects. Golden Youth Centre, fibre optic internet in select areas of Golden, high speed internet in some of our rural regions, “Make Golden BC Your Backyard “ immigration marketing campaign, funding funnel for Kicking Horse Culture, current logo branding for Kicking Horse Country, Golden Film Festival and the well-executed and delivered Kicking Horse Country Business Retention and Expansion project. For a few years leading up to the formation of GAI, the Town of Golden filled the role of economic development. But as a community economic development is inclusive of our surrounding rural communities GAI formed to include CSRD Area ‘A’ and the Town. Funding for GAI is a tri-party agreement through CSRD Area ‘A’, Town of Golden and BC Economic Opportunity Fund. Some proponents of GAI have voiced their concern to fall of its’ current model with the biggest void leaving behind the succinct marketing, promotion and business support of Kicking Horse Country. The common question is -who is going to answer the phone to potential business development in our community? The answer is… the Town of Golden Chief Administration Officer, Jon Wilsgard. For the fiscal year of 2014, Golden’s Mayor Christina Benty and CSRD Area ‘A’ Director Gary Habart have both confirmed that the funding is still in place, and GAI as a society is still active but with not in a operation capacity. The Town of Golden is active in seeking a resolution to a better model for economic development. The main organisations that rely on funding through GAI are Kicking Horse Culture and the Area ‘A’ film commission – their funding is still secure for the next year. A proactive motion from the Town of Golden was to submit notice for the cancellation of the structure of the GAI tri party agreement as it was up for renewal for the 2014 year. The Town of Golden sent a letter to Director Habart, stating the Town of Golden were interested in researching a new model of economic development and the CSRD was invited for active role in the review process. The ToG continued to be frustrated with the lack of deliverables from the CSRD hence initiated the termination of the GAI operations agreement. To this day according to Mayor Benty and Director Habart, there was no official response from the CSRD, nor did the CSRD partake in the Town of Golden’s economic development research committee lead by Councillor Caleb Moss. However informal conversations were presented to Director Habart even, then no action was taken by Director Habart. But this is a blessing in disguise. The Town of Golden and the CSRD both acknowledge there is a better formula to conduct business and wanted to measure success from the organisation. For a majority of the 2013 year. The Town of Golden Economic Review Committee researched best business practices for economic development. Mayor Benty “We looked at other communities and the most successful models. We know that communities around the province have struggled with economic development models.” The big problem around the world with economic development is the ability to measure success. “Measurable success of economic development is nebulous” says Mayor Benty. The big question with economic development organisations is. Does it work? To some people economic development is a black and white methodology. Attract big business! And we have success to support our families. Questions that are asked to measure this model are; Do we have industry and high paying jobs? Are the brick and mortar store fronts occupied? Are people driving new cars? This could be Fort McMurrey – a bustling successful city with billions in potential wages, next to zero unemployment, high average blue collar incomes, a realtors dream location to operate in. [ The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s spring Rental Market Survey states the average rent in the Wood Buffalo Region of Ft. McMurrey in April 2013 $2,229 per month for a two-bedroom apartment]. The grey measurable success area of ec dev is the community economic development arena. A bottom up methodology. If you build a social fabric support foundation for the people to enhance their quality life necessities, success will follow. If you build it they will come theory. This measurable success question is extremely hard to answer. How do you measure quality of life? Are people happy with the services, recreation and beautification of their town to make it a desirable place to develop prospering businesses? This could be Fernie – they have a huge public pool and multi-use recreation centre, skate park, active and intimate arts centre, close to mountain recreation, huge network of multi-activity trails, beautiful and well maintained downtown core, cohesive design image of Fernie –note the communities main industry is mining, forestry and tourism. Kicking Horse Country is at a cross roads. For the past 20 years as a community, some residents are still awaiting the gold standard of development that Premier Bennett thwarted into the BC economy –resource extraction; logging, mining, hydro dams and more. Can Golden wait for this to happen? These industries are boom bust cycle. Our community has watched as the market place takes a turn. Logging has had high and lows, CP Rail is in a restructuring mode, Tourism has many influencing factors –weather, Canadian Dollar value, world markets etc. BC is rattled with ghost towns from this type of singular industry dependent micro-economies for the past two centuries What does the future bring? We need to move forward in balanced and sustainable businesses. Move from reactionary corrective actions to a proactive attraction for the long term successes. As a past Mayor of Golden educated me about our economy is. We have three pillars to our economy. LP/CP, Tourism and Healthcare. Unbalance one pillar and our table will fall. The proper planning can bring this balanced approach. The move as it seems to be agreed by Director Habart and Mayor Benty is rebuilding the ec dev office as a project based office. As it seems Director Habart is going to keep a wait-and-see for the laurels of the ToG research a new ec dev operation. [We need] More time to gain our thoughts together to create a new working model and keep the area open for incentive. Says Director Habart. The Town of Golden wants to bring it closer to local government direction. This is because there so many factors in big business development in dealing with regulations and resources from Provincial and Federal Governments. “This will become an election issue in 2014”says Mayor Benty. When dealing with potential new business in Kicking Horse Country, the town of Golden is the first place to start even though most development would happen in Area A. Mayor Benty explains “We have political boundaries. We have legislative boundaries. The community doesnt give one rip about those boundaries.” Referring to the different types of red tape that needs to be cut in order to do business in our region. “The role of the municipality is to provide the legislation and infrastructure for the business environment and to lobby to other level of governments.” It seems that there is an underlying movement, but not very vocal about a move to encourage the centralisation of like minded economic services; thus to create better cooperation and a share in resources. A centralized commercial office space dedicated to economic minded organisations like, Tourism Golden, GAI, Chamber of Commerce, Community Futures, CSRD Area A office and more. A one-stop-shop for the new and existing business and development services which would help elevate the headache of navigating local government bureaucracy and information sharing. They all essentially have a like minded purpose to develop, attract and support new business, whilst marketing new customer opportunities. It is amazing what a casual conversation over a mutual lunch room can enact. How many million dollar business have started on a cocktail napkin? The future is bright… well the planning looks bright. thelocaltownie.ca
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 00:12:11 +0000
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