Prince George, BC – Big changes were unveiled, and hailed, for Initiatives Prince George, as the economic development agency laid out its plans – financial and otherwise – at last night’s budget meeting at City Hall.

Outside Council Chambers, IPG Board Chair, Glen Wonders, revealed a decision to "hold pat" on staffing at the agency – meaning Acting CEO Heather Oland will stay on; no replacement will be sought for the outgoing head, Tim McEwan; another vacant position will not be filled; and a half-time position has been cut.  The cost saving in wages and salaries is $247-thousand dollars.

In total, IPG presented a 2012 budget to Council last night that was down $167-thousand dollars to 1.624-million dollars, from last year’s $1.791-million.  (Council’s funding portion has remain unchanged for three years now, at $1.024-million dollars)

In addition to being involved in the City’s upcoming core services review, Oland said the agency will be conducting its own internal review and she’s confident further savings will be found over the coming year.  She pointed to sponsorship and advertising as two areas she feels could be pared back with the least impact on service delivery.  But said she needs some time to ensure any cuts made do not impact the agency’s ability to leverage funding from other levels of government and the private sector. 

Councillor Albert Koehler had wanted to cut an additional $50-thousand dollars from the city’s grant at last night’s meeting, but the motion was defeated.  Councillor Murry Krause said he’d rather wait for the results of the review than select an arbitrary number.

"One of the most important things that we’re going to be completing over the next month is developing a ‘matrix of measurables’ so that we can track our service delivery appropriately," Oland told Councillors.

"It’s important when you’re running an organization to make sure that you’re doing what you said you were going to do effectively," she said.  "And it’s important to the taxpayers and to Council to know that you’re getting value for your money."

This internal review comes less than one year after Council approved the hiring of an independent consultant to review IPG’s economic development performance – the cost of that review was to be shared by the City and IPG and come in at no more than $40-thousand dollars.  The final report at the end of September found, overall, that IPG was providing good value in providing economic development services, but there were some concerns about the transparency of the results. (click here, for report)

Last night, several councillors expressed concerns about communication between the two groups in the past.  Councillor Dave Wilbur says a recent meeting between Council and IPG’s board was the first he could recall in three years.  "It was really an opportunity to speak of, and focus, on a fresh start," said Wilbur. 

His sentiment was echoed by the majority of councillors.  Lyn Hall said he thinks this new partnership is going to be a strong one, but says communication is key and it’s imperative the two sides meet more than once or twice per year. 

Discussions on a new service delivery agreement between the City, as the main stakeholder, and IPG are set to begin soon.  The last three-year agreement was for 2008-2010, but was extended through last year.