City taking economic development reins

By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: August 26, 2008

There’s a major shift in how economic development is delivered. The City of Vernon is poised to take on economic development and tourism services as the North Okanagan Regional District withdraws from the function. “We will be the strong, co-operative leader and provide the service,” said Mayor Wayne Lippert. On Monday, city council instructed administration to advertise for an economic development officer and a tourism marketing person. While there is an existing Greater Vernon economic development function, it’s anticipated NORD will launch the process to disband the initiative at its Sept. 3 meeting. Lippert said Vernon started looking at developing its own service after Areas B and C opted to withdraw from NORD’s economic development function. “Because of our physical size, we can provide the service ourselves,” said Lippert. “We have a little industrial land around the airport and economic development isn’t just about industry. It’s about the development and retention of business.” But the new initiative won’t be just limited to Vernon. It will contract out its services to other North Okanagan communities for a fee. “We will work with any jurisdiction,” said Lippert.

Lumby has been trying to access economic development services for years, and Mayor Eric Foster says it doesn’t matter who is in charge. “For smaller communities, a fee for service works a lot better and Vernon running it makes sense because they are the big economic driver,” he said. Stan Field, Area C director, is pleased to see the city setting up an economic development/tourism division. “That’s the way we understood it would happen,” he said. Field had wanted the existing Greater Vernon service to morph into a North Okanagan-wide function but some jurisdictions were reluctant to get involved. “It just wasn’t working through the regional district,” said Field. Field still isn’t interested in economic development but he is willing to financially support tourism marketing through the city. Jerry Oglow, NORD chairman and Armstrong mayor, supports the city running economic development. “We are working with the city in respect to economic development and how best to deliver the service,” he said.

Some issues that need to be resolved include who will operate Greater Vernon’s tourist information centres, and what will happen to existing economic development staff. “We have excellent staff and I hope all or some of them can transition to the city but that will be the call of the city,” said Oglow. It’s possible that the city could have the two new positions filled by the new year.

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Morning Star Editorial

At a time when OI Canada has decided to close the glass plant and the forest sector continues to struggle, there is obviously a need for the North Okanagan to diversify its economy if the region is to grow and prosper. And key to that is having a solid structure in place that not only tries to draw new investors here but tries to keep existing businesses firmly in place. But despite many grandiose plans, the Greater Vernon economic development function has never lived up to expectations. That's why the City of Vernon's move towards taking the function over is welcome news. It will shift the service away from the political infighting that often dominates the North Okanagan Regional District and hopefully provide some clear direction.And one has to acknowledge that the function will not be Vernon-centric. In fact, little of its business may physically take place in Vernon as the city doesn't have a lot of land for industry, which generally creates good-paying jobs. That land is found in the surrounding communities and other jurisdictions will be able to access the economic development service for a fee. In fact, that situation is ideal for places like Lumby. They can pay only for the activities they need. Of course there are still some details to be worked out, including the future of the existing economic development staff and who will operate Greater Vernon's tourist information centres. But the bottom line ultimately must be promoting Vernon and the North Okanagan as a great way to do business, and forgetting about who actually administers the function.