By Dominic Abassi

Council amends policy to fund non-profit despite concerns from staff

Jun 30, 2017 | 12:17 AM

NANAIMO — A senior staffer at City Hall is concerned Nanaimo council is setting a dangerous precedent by ignoring their own policies to fund a Campbell River-based non-profit.

Council approved up to $30,000 in funding for the Vancouver Island North Film Commission (INfilm) despite numerous warnings from deputy chief administrative officer Victor Mema that Council policy stipulates the organization is not eligible for City funding because it is not based in Nanaimo.

“You really want policies to be respected,” Mema told NanaimoNewsNOW. “If you can just change these things on the fly then it begs the question ‘why do you need policies at all, why don’t you just make it a free-for-all.’”

Mema also said even if INfilm qualified for the funding, there’s no money in the 2017 budget to pull from. “Unless you’re asking me to take money out of reserves, which I wouldn’t recommend, we don’t have funding for that,” Mema told Council on Monday evening.

Mema said there is no money for economic development projects like this in the 2017 budget because the money saved by shutting down the NEDC was used to reduce this year’s property tax increase.

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“You’re setting yourselves a precedent where you can always change the policies to fit whatever you want to do,” he said.

Coun. Bill Bestwick, who brought the motion forward, challenged Mema during Monday’s meeting, asking how the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) or the now-shuttered Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation (NEDC) could find a way to fund the film commission but the City couldn’t.

Bestwick spoke emotionally in his support of the funding, at one point getting up and walking away from the table.

“We do it (give out funding) every meeting. Sometimes we don’t even know that it’s coming, it just shows up,” Bestwick said. “What do we do? Sheesh, we can’t wait to approve it. So something that we’ve had in front of us for weeks or months, can’t get it on the agenda…I’m frustrated.”

Coun. Bill Yoachim said the issue was being “over-politicized.”

“We all have friends in this industry, everyone at this table does, and we know what it does. Somehow we have to make a way, if there’s a technicality. I’m not saying bend the rules but if there’s a will there’s a way,” he said.

“Things evolve and opportunities arrive…To me this is a positive change, this isn’t just flexing the rules on a whim,” Yoachim said.

Coun. Gord Fuller said the precedent for giving out money contrary to policy was set a long time ago. “$5,000 here, $5,000 there, we’re constantly making those decisions against policy,” Fuller said.

INfilm, which covers Crofton-north, works to promote the region to the international film industry as a prime location for film, television and commercial productions.

Commisioner Joan Miller said big-budget projects like the Twilight Saga, Godzilla, and Man of Steel have filmed in Nanaimo over the last several years.

Hallmark Channel show Chesepeake Shores is currently filming in the region for a second time. Miller said the series produced 10,000 room nights in local hotels in 2016, with another 15,000 projected this year.

Miller said the City of Campbell River provides $50,000 per year to their organization. The RDN gave $5,000 for 2017.

The Nanaimo Hospitality Association asked Council to consider the funding after the Ministry of Finance told the NHA they could not use hotel tax money to support the film commission.

The City’s economic development officer Amrit Manhas told NanaimoNewsNOW INfilm was turned down for 2017 funding by the City more than once.

The NEDC provided more than $80,000 to INfilm between 2013 and 2016 but there was no agreement heading into this year, she said. Manhas said there has been much discussion about room nights and reports of per dieme spending by cast and crew, but no economic impact analysis has ever been created.

Council’s approved motion called on staff to amend the policy to allow for the funding. Mema said they will now work on finding the money.

dom@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @domabassi