IPG Steps Back from DBIA

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 03:30 PM

Prince George, B.C.- Initiatives Prince George was not at the table this morning for the private meeting and workshops set up by the Downtown Business Improvement Association nor will it be at the DBIA Board table.

Here is the email IPG President Tim McEwan sent to DBIA President Hugh Nicholson:

“At this time and until further notice, Initiatives Prince George will not participate ex-officio on the Downtown Business Improvement Association (DBIA) Board, nor will we participate in the private meeting tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m.

As reported in the paper you publish on Saturday, the Board of Initiatives Prince George has directed staff to undertake a thorough review of the report on the Revitalization Tax Exemption (RTE) for Downtown that was presented to City Council last Monday. Our review of the RTE report will take place within the 8 week time frame prescribed by City Council at last Monday's regular meeting.

Initiatives Prince George will continue to participate and advance its priorities for downtown renewal through the Downtown Partnership (formerly the Mayor's Task Force for a Better Downtown)”

McEwan says it was important for Initiatives Prince George to step back from the DBIA following the DBIA’s scathing statement about the Revitalization Tax Exemption report issued last week.

Last Friday three members of the Board of Directors resigned saying they were not comfortable with the direction in which the DBIA is heading. McEwan says IPG’s decision not to participate in this morning’s session or ex-officio on the Board should not be viewed as a boycott “We wanted to remove a perception of conflict and it is not appropriate to be aligned with the statement issued by the DBIA Board last week when we are reviewing the full report and will make a submission to the City within the 8 week period set out by Council.”

While the DBIA workshops schedule promised media events at 1:30, the “events” were, like this morning’s meeting, by invitation only. Pre-arranged interview sessions ( one on one) were set up with the local daily newspaper, the Free Press, and CKPG. Other media outlets, including Opinion 250, CFIS FM, the Wolf at 97 or 94X FM were not contacted, even though Downtown Prince George had been advised as late as last Friday that there was interest in covering this event.

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Posted on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 03:30 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: camoose on May 25 2010 4:27 PM

A little bit of a power struggle maybe???

Posted by: gus on May 25 2010 4:40 PM

I think the most interesting thing to note here from my point of view is that IPG is an ex offcio member of the Board in the first place.

I think if the DBIA is merely an association to assist downtown merchants to market themselves, that IPG really does not have much to do.

On the other hand, if it is an association to promote the development of the downtown into a fully integrated viable entity which does more than just run Santa Clause parades (which it no longer did) or have street fairs (which it no longer did) or hang flower baskets, then it would certainly be beneficial to have IPG sit in on the Board.

I think they made the right move to temporarily remove themselves from discussions at the Board level. However, I hope that they will not also be accused of the same thing the consultant was accused of, and that is to talk to local business people and developers to determine whether the figures used and the opinions expressed were reasonable and, if they were not reasonable, why not.

Posted by: gus on May 25 2010 4:52 PM

Camoose. I believe it was the right decision since the Board, or at least the executive have some very strong opinions about the report.

It is jsut bad timing because many will not look at it that way.

There were three Councillors at least who panned the report as well. But heck, that does not make for controversial reading.

Maybe Opinion 250 can try Councillors Wilbur, Green and Stolz to see what their thinking is on the report now that the DBIA has panned it.

IPG is in a pretty tough postion now, the way I look at it.

In favour of the report and tax payers will "revolt" and a few Councillors will be unhappy.

Against the report and the DBIA will lump IPG in with the City, the report's author and maybe even the province.

So, a possbile scenario is that there will be a compromise report produced by IPG, stating that the province is unlikely to budge, but that the consulatant's report was not exhaustive snce there are some other possbile incentives to consider under the current legislation and that IPG will offer its services to work with developers to find the best opportunities available to make their projects viable.