The public deserves to know why the Vancouver Economic Commission is being suddenly scrapped by Mayor Sim
It was announced a few days ago that an arms length municipal agency representing Vancouver’s interests for nearly 30 years, the Vancouver Economic Commission, was suddenly, and without consultation or explanation, scrapped. As an urban professional with over a decade of experience in community economic development and related planning work in Vancouver, I was one of a growing number of people raising concerns and asking questions on LinkedIn over the past week. After seeing my colleague, Coro Strandberg, had written a letter to Mayor and Council I decided to do the same.
For anyone interest in transparency in government, accountability of elected leaders, and urban sustainability, the recent events around VEC and the heavy handed unilateral action by Mayor Sim should be cause for concern.
Without a clear and convincing rationale regarding the decision, or a process to engage with civic institutions, industries and others connected to its work before it was announced, many of us can’t help but think the action seems almost prejudicial and vindictive in nature, like it is the culmination of years of agitated backroom discussions with the city’s old-guard business elites who still believe Vancouver is simply a mining and forestry corporate headquarters town, and that economic development priorities should reflect the colonial past of its extractive sunset industries who still take up sizeable floor space in its downtown skyscrapers and sizeable airspace in conservative political discourse. With so little to go on regarding why it is suddenly and unceremoniously being canned, many of us are left to speculate about the Mayor’s motives, or the motives of those whispering in his ear…or shotgunning beers with him by the BBQ, such as it may be.
VEC, in doing such things as opposing the Kinder Morgan Transmountain Pipeline, and promoting a vision of green economic development, may now be paying for sins against the old guard business elite. It would be particularly tragic, and in a way ironic, if this were the case, though it is likely not the whole story. As construction costs have skyrocketed on Transmountain, Canadians stand to lose money for decades to come while the Burrard Inlet becomes a ticking time-bomb, just as the VEC, First Nations, and others cautioned for several years.
It’s economic folly on the way to environmental ruin.
Sadly, in the absence of a flagship municipal agency to articulate the economic development priorities of Vancouver, we are left with nothing but questions and speculation, and the public deserves to hear a more fulsome explanation as to why this is being done. So, here is the letter I wrote to Mayor and Council.
Dear Mayor and Council,
I write to express concern regarding the recent announcement of the sudden and unexpected decommissioning of the Vancouver Economic Commission. I’m sure this decision was not made lightly, but the way in which it has been implemented seems rushed and with an unclear rationale, leaving many people with questions.
My concerns are informed by my previous experiences as Community Economic Development Planner for the City of Vancouver, Director of Simon Fraser University’s Community Economic Development Program, and a past Executive Director for one of Vancouver’s business improvement associations, where I served as Chair of the Vancouver BIA Partnership’s Economic Development Committee. In all these different roles I never shied away from criticizing the VEC for what I believed were blind spots in its mandate. For example, overlooking the needs of small independent businesses struggling in our city in favour of attracting investment and firms in select industries and sectors. But I also saw firsthand how effective the organization has been at implementing its mandate under successive councils and how engaged it became in a range of issues that small and large businesses alike are concerned with. Like how to make our local economy more energy efficient, reduce waste, use resources in innovative ways, and do our part as a global city in the effort to ensure economic growth does not come at the expense of our environment.
While I appreciate that the VEC has operated as an arm’s length entity of the City for nearly 30 years, and it is within the purview of Mayor and Council to make this decision, it is unclear to me and many others who have been actively engaged in economic development work in this city why this was deemed necessary, and what the implications are for EcDev work here moving ahead. In the absence of a clear rationale, aside from those vague and general ones provided like improving service delivery and creating efficiencies, many of us are left wondering just what problem this is solving?
Economic development work is about more than improving permit wait times or expediting business licenses, but language stressing improved service delivery and creation of efficiencies suggests this is what the VEC will be reduced to. This seems redundant when considering the City already created various small business supports of this nature with the Small Business Commercial Renovation Centre (CRC), and the Commercial Tenant Assistance Program (CTAP) several years ago. Will Vancouver simply capitulate to Metro Vancouver’s newly created Invest Vancouver and let it provide a vision for economic development in our city and its communities, industries, and sectors as one of 23 constituent members? The many stakeholders connected to VEC’s work and the public at large deserve to hear what this Mayor and Council’s vision for economic development in Vancouver in a post VEC world will be. Without hearing a clear theory of change we are left to speculate both on the motives for this sudden decision and what the future will look like in terms of work to build a vibrant and diverse economy able to generate prosperity, opportunity, and security for Vancouverites.
Decommissioning the VEC in this way risks creating a vacuum in this city’s EcDev ecosystem and fostering confusion about the City’s priorities for economic development in the years ahead. I’m hopeful we may hear more about how this decision serves the public interest and helps to strategically advance economic development goals in Vancouver, or what those new goals may be if the work of the VEC was considered problematic. This is not something that has been publicly raised since this Council’s mandate began that I am aware of, so I hope you can understand and appreciate the concern and confusion it has caused among some.
Sincerely,
Wes Regan