By Spencer Sterritt

Loss of city grant forces Downtown Nanaimo BIA into emergency strategizing

Jan 26, 2017 | 4:48 PM

NANAIMO — Downtown Nanaimo’s Business Improvement Association has some tough days ahead.

According to DNBIA board president John Cooper, the matching grant of $250,000 from the city has been withdrawn after 16 years, forcing them to cut 50 per cent of their staff and significantly alter their strategic plan.

This came after a core review of the city in summer 2016 recommended discontinuing the main grant and instead focus on event and initiative specific grants.

Cooper told NanaimoNewsNOW he and other members of the association weren’t surprised by the recommendation from the core review, but were surprised at the timing of the city’s decision.

“We’ve been trying to get in front of council since September to update them on how the recommendations of the core review would impact (us). The decision was made without that feedback,” he said.

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Cooper spoke to City Council at their meeting on Jan. 23 to discuss the funding.

In the meeting, Chief Administrative Officer Tracy Samra said the city did meet with the DNBIA almost immediately after the core services review and they spoke several times after that.

“There were numerous consultation sessions with DNBIA seeing how the city could support them in dealing with the recommendations,” she said. “There were probably more than a dozen meetings.”

She said they discussed cutting the fund by various degrees, whether it was 100 per cent or 50 per cent, as well as floating cash to the association since the City recognized their fiscal year ended at different times.

“We understand that when you’re a non-profit and there’s cuts to your funding you need to be able to work collaboratively. I’m quite confident the corporate record shows the city didn’t do something out of the blue, that there’s been six months of discussions.”

In 23 months, the contract between the DNBIA and the city was to be reviewed, which Cooper said would have been an “opportune time” to discuss the core review recommendations and their future.

“All of the committee work and board planning, which has been done by volunteers, essentially has to be reset,” he said. An “abrupt pause” has been placed on their programming and events.

Currently, the $250,000 paid by the 400 property owners of the association will continue to be collected.

An emergency strategic planning meeting with the board and volunteers will take place Feb. 1 to discuss the state of the DNBIA and how to use the money to make the best of the next 23 months.

Addressing critics of the association, Cooper said they provide continuity for downtown Nanaimo and work to make sure the economic future of the area isn’t disrupted by changes at City Hall.

He pinpointed Victoria’s Business Improvement Association as an example of what happens when no one takes responsibility for a downtown.

“Within two years, the downtown was really negatively affected and then the community voted it back in. They’ve never had to worry about renewal ever since. Sometimes communities have to go through a growth faze to realize there’s actually a lot of work being done,” he said.

Projects organized or sponsored by the DNBIA

• Downtown Easter Spring Fling
• Multicultural Festival
• Downtown Halloween Howl
• Terminal/Nicol Revitalization

Spencer.sterritt@islandradio.bc.ca

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit