The District of Squamish is set to spend half a million dollars on developing the town's economy.
Last summer, the municipality hired Dan McRae to fill the new position of economic sustainability coordinator. Eight months later, and after 70 interviews with stakeholders, the district is looking at pitching another $50,000 at the program to hire an extra person for six months. The department's 2012 budget request is $499,692.
The temporary employee will help McRae with a "busy" schedule, Cameron Chalmers, the district's general manager of community services, said at the March 27 council meeting. McRae's workload includes everything from preparing a business incentives package for Squamish to ensuring the municipality's readiness to attract and retain business investment.
Coun. Patricia Heintzman suggested the district look at a tax exemption for downtown businesses in an effort to revitalize the area, but her idea didn't fly with council. The district has launched its Business Retention and Expansion Program, which sets out a schedule to improve the municipality's handling of business permits, business taxation and the like.
The municipality should fix its faults first, rather than adopt piecemeal bylaws along the way, Coun. Susan Chapelle said.
"I would like to see us mending problems identified before putting in incentives," she said.
While the district's new program sets out to turn around its "not-open-for-business" reputation identified in the 2011 Core Service Review, one local professional questions whether the municipality is examining the right issues.
John Jervis, Sea to Sky business and commercial property consultant, said the district's strategy focuses too much on local business retention and not enough on bringing new business to the community. Approximately 90 per cent of Squamish companies are retail and services, he said, noting the municipality should look at where the cash flow is entering the district because that drives the success of the commercial and retail sectors.
"Retail and services just cannibalizes the money that is already here in town," he said. "It doesn't bring new money here."
Expansion, as stated in the name of the program, is a big part of the economic development strategy, Coun. Ron Sander said. Council is speeding up the program, but it can't overlook important steps, he said.
As a councillor, Sander said he uses every opportunity he can to market Squamish, but the community is not ready for its big advertising push yet. The district only received its Core Service Review a few months ago, in which it uncovered some scathing results, Sander noted.
"We need to fix those so we have credibility before we get out in the world and start waving our banner and telling people everything is better," Sander said. "Frankly not all those problems are fixed yet."
Council has not yet finalized its 2012 budget. The district aims to adopt a final draft in May.
