By Dominic Abassi

City, mayor yet to determine new economic development structure for Nanaimo

Feb 1, 2017 | 4:39 PM

Nanaimo’s new economic development structure, whatever that looks like, won’t be operating at full-steam for “some time,” according to mayor Bill McKay.

The regular operations of the Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation (NEDC) officially ended Tuesday, a decision announced by council in mid-December. McKay said as of Wednesday there have been no meetings or conversations with staff or council about what the new structure might look like.

A city press release from December shows the new plan is to have a commission chaired by the mayor.

“There’s no doubt we’ve got a skeleton of what was there before,” McKay said in conversation with NanaimoNewsNOW. “Having said that, they’ll still be effective because the people that are there are very experienced.”

Two long-time NEDC staff members have been pulled in-house at City Hall to work on economic development, according to communications manager Philip Cooper. Those two staff members will report to Cooper, although he made it clear he would not be advising or providing direction.

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Cooper said it’s too soon to comment on the ultimate size of the new department within the city, nor did he have an idea as to what kind of funding the service would receive beyond wages. The NEDC received $1.3 million annually from the city, with roughly $700,000 dedicated to economic development.

When the city handled those services in-house prior to the formation of the NEDC in 2011, there were four full-time staff members and a full-time manager on the file, according to CUPE president Blaine Gurrie.

When asked about concerns over a lack of continuity or things falling through the cracks during the transition, both Cooper and McKay were quick to say the city is still open for business. Cooper noted a key staff person, Amrit Manhas, was still with the city.

When asked why not leave the NEDC the way it was until the new model was completely constructed, Cooper said there were two major obstacles — the fact the NEDC had no CEO and a massive portion of their board of directors had resigned.

McKay said he wants to see at least two members of council join him in the process, at least in the initial stages. He also wants council to provide guidance and vision and defend the decisions that are made by the new model of economic development.

Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce CEO and president Kim Smythe said Nanaimo is now a community operating without economic development guidance, noting he’s hearing concern from everybody in the business community.

“Every other community on Vancouver Island is guided by a…body of some sort,” said Smythe. “We’re going to be losing ground against the Comox Valley, the Cowichan Valley, Victoria at a very, very critical time of opportunity.”

Smythe pointed to the current reports of tech companies fleeing the United States and the prime spot B.C. and the island are in to capitalize.

Smythe said a stakeholders committee needs to come together to offer some recommendations to the city about what will work best. However, he said given the way things have played out over the last several months, it’s going to be a challenge to get buy-in from the business community.

“I’m sure they will react with caution. Without certainty about this new model and without some participation in developing the model, I think the chances of getting some buy-in to a municipal-led exercise is going to be difficult to get…perhaps industry should be the one taking the lead.”

Continuity and momentum are vital to making an economic development plan work, according to Smythe.

“If you start to mess up that high-level plan, it takes a very long time to create a new high-level plan and follow it,” he said.