Forum in Valemount Lists Top Three Areas for Economic Development
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 @ 6:00 AM
Valemount, B.C.- The economic development pilot project for Barriere to McBride wrapped up yesterday with three main areas of economic focus.
Minister of Jobs Innovation and Tourism, Pat Bell says there were well over a hundred people in attendance “It was a real cross section of people including local business, First Nations were there, local mayors. We concluded there were three buckets of economic activities we wanted to focus our efforts on.”
Those three areas are:
1. Projects relating to power, either through IPP’s or an improvement in delivery of existing power.
2. Fibre related projects, such as pellet plants, bio-energy and specialty manufacturing
3. Destination tourism
From here, Minister Bell says there will be a group of about 15 people from his Ministry, BC Hydro and economic development officers from the region look at the ideas “They are getting together and going through everything that we looked at, and putting it in one of those three buckets. Once that’s done, they’re going to prioritize the different buckets to see what we can do, and what we can do quickly. Then we’ll report back to the group in the first week of February.”
At that point, they will ask the region for feedback “Assuming we can get some consensus, we will be moving ahead to deal with it as quickly as possible.”
The next session is set for Campbell River on January 30th. The fourth, as yet to be announced session, will be with a First Nation community.
Comments
More ‘gum flapping’ that’ll result in absolutely nothing ‘innovative’ because the focus is still misplaced.
A ‘job’ is a MEANS to an END, not the ‘end’ itself. That ‘end’ is the delivery of goods and services to Consumers who actually need or want them.
If that isn’t happening, shouldn’t we really begin by asking ourselves whether the demand for those goods and services actually exists? And if it does, what is stopping it from being filled?
If it actually DOES exist, and the only thing that stops it from being satiated is that all the ‘costs’ involved can’t be recovered in ‘price’ now, then is adding more costs to that price going to rectify the situation? Or ultimately make it worse?
If we’re so concerned about “making work” we need do no more than dig holes and then fill them in again. Endless “work” can be created that way, and it’s every bit as useful as trying to engage in the things the 100 people or so above identified that haven’t been done because they “don’t pay”.
Just another waste of time government mandated forum of nothing.
Just reduce taxes and let corporations and people make decisions. The government interference adds no value.
And everyone who attends these meetings is really looking for some kind of government subsidization or other handout, which further costs the taxpayer. And surprisingly when someone starts or runs a company on a taxpayer funded handout it rarely survives. If the person had a good idea and was capable then they likely would have been able to secure non-government funding. And around we go again.
I think its great that the Provincial government is reaching out to its constituents. They often make these grand plans that really don’t resonate with residents at all. This doesn’t guarantee that we will see any definitive action in these areas, but if the the government is truly listening, they have been given a clear direction.
Seems like the region has some godo ideas too. Tourism and value-added forestry create a lot of jobs and place a high value on quality. This is what BC needs. We can’t compete in a commodity market.
For once I totally agree with Born in BC. All the government is doing here is trying to put on a show that it is listening.
And what it will undoubtedly hear is the need for what WAC Bennett used to derisively call “hot house industries”.
Things that have no chance of ever succeeding without continued taxpayer subsidisation, which will be in a form that can’t help but encourage inefficiency through attempts to make every process as labour intensive as possible. We’re just digging holes and then filling them in again, and for what? All so that we have an “excuse” to pay someone to do something useless?
Kind of like watching grown ups playing with cars and trucks in a sand box. Isn’t imagination wonderful?
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