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NEDC CEO says council ignoring core review with tourism change

Oct 25, 2016 | 4:34 PM

NANAIMO — The CEO of the Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation (NEDC) is calling for transparency, saying he is perplexed about why city council has removed tourism from the organization’s mandate.

John Hankins has issued an op-ed titled Perplexed and Silent No More, defending the performance of Tourism Nanaimo and calling into question the decision to pull tourism from NEDC. The four-page piece references a record-breaking year for tourism locally. Hankins says he also finds the way the decision was announced disrespectful to his staff, his volunteer board and the city’s taxpayers.

“What has led council to make this decision? Because the core review does not suggest making this. The CBRE (real estate consultants) report does not mention doing this,” said Hankins. “So somewhere there’s an influence that’s driving city staff to come to these conclusions and recommendations to city council. I don’t know what that is, my board, I don’t believe know what it is, my staff certainly don’t know what it is.”

At the Oct. 17 council meeting it was announced that tourism would be taken away from NEDC at the end of the year to allow the corporation to focus solely on economic development. The decision was made by council during an Oct. 3 in-camera meeting. It’s unclear how tourism will be handled in the city past 2016, with the city’s chief financial officer Victor Mema saying staff are now exploring a more effective way to deliver those services. Mema says a destination management organization is a model that’s proving popular in other jurisdictions.

Hankins, who was hired as the third CEO of the NEDC in January, says the recommendation in the core review is very clear that the model of the corporation should be left alone. Hankins says there were several discussions between his staff and city representatives between the release of the core review in late May and a meeting on Sept. 20. He says at that meeting city staff presented options for changes to the model, including the removal of tourism.

“Although we were aware these discussions were being had, at no time were we ever asked for our opinion or concerns as to which option was the best one,” said Hankins.

Hankins says Tourism Nanaimo is generating great momentum. He points to a Chemistry Consulting report that shows Nanaimo’s occupancy rate in August was 90.2 per cent, higher than Victoria’s. He says their social media numbers are expanding and notes staff were able to leverage $109,000 in funding from the organization and turn it into destination marketing campaigns valued at more than $500,000. Hankins says he’s fully in support of splitting tourism and economic development if that’s indeed the best option, but the way the city went about the changes is creating chaos in the market.

“I’d like to see an open conversation, as opposed to an in-camera session, what was presented that was so compelling to pull tourism out of NEDC…I don’t believe city staff are tourism experts. I would like to see what was the analysis and then we can make the right decision.”

Tourism Nanaimo has five staff in total, according to Hankins. He says his team is very concerned and CUPE 401 has sent a grievance letter to him saying the union, who represents the employees, was not consulted about the changes.

NEDC’s CEO is also raising concerns about misinformation being presented to council surrounding the finances of the corporation. Hankins says he has asked for clarification as to why in August Victor Mema was quoted as saying NEDC was on track to lose $80,000 this year. He says all financial documents are shared with the city and they show in 2016 they are on track for a break-even budget.

“I have still yet to get a satisfactory answer as to where that (Mema’s) estimate came from. I don’t blame the councillors, if they’re being given that sort of information, to have some concerns.”

City of Nanaimo CAO Tracy Samra was quick to discredit the claims made by Hankins. She says the city consulted with NEDC from the outset of the process. Samra references at least 14 meetings between August and October with various stakeholders, including the board and city staff. She says staff spent six hours going over the proposed changes with the NEDC board at the Sept. 20 meeting.

“John Hankins has gone rogue,” said Samra, who adds Hankins had no board resolution or authorization to release his op-ed. “I’m surprised he would take this action. It undermines the open and collaborative process created to address the challenges of NEDC.”

Samra says you can’t look at the achievements of Tourism Nanaimo in isolation. She says the consultants are telling them you need to integrate all of the tourism players and Tourism Nanaimo has failed to design and deliver an integrated destination marketing strategy since 2011. She says council felt tourism services overlapped with what they need to do for the Vancouver Island Conference Centre (VICC) to support conference marketing.

Both the core review consultant and a company hired to review the VICC’s operations cited a clear lack of collaboration and communication between tourism, hoteliers and conference centre marketing efforts. While the core review did present an option of splitting tourism and economic development services, its final recommendation was that NEDC was a “best practice” and should continue in its present structure with stronger planning and accountability measures.

Samra says what you can interpret from the wording of the core review is that NEDC has serious governance issues and without a correction it would not warrant any further funding of any kind.

Scott Littlejohn, a former member of Nanaimo’s Tourism Leadership Committee and marketing coordinator with Living Forest Oceanside Campground, says he sent a letter to mayor and council outlining his experiences working as a stakeholder with Tourism Nanaimo. He says the young team has done a remarkable job, particularly in the last year or so.

“I have a lot of concerns about the future of Tourism Nanaimo as it relates to the stakeholders and tourism operators and potential damage if we’re not able to keep this team together…it has the potential to be fantastic, it just depends where council decides to take things.”

Requests for comment on Hankins’ claims and op-ed from both the NEDC board, as well as mayor and council, were not answered.

Hankins says at the end of the day the city is the shareholder and they can choose to either hear his concerns or ignore them and he has to respect whichever they decide to do.

“My moral compass says that I have to stand up here and actually raise these concerns,” said Hankins.

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A summary of the payments from the city of Nanaimo to NEDC since it was created in 2011:

  • 2011 – $116,645
  • 2012 – $1,375,448
  • 2013 – $1,375,450
  • 2014 – $1,375,450
  • 2015 – $1,375,450
  • 2016 – $1,375,450