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What a collage of politispeak bafflegab

Kudos to Paul Rudan for his comments regarding Rivercorp in last Friday’s paper

Kudos to Paul Rudan for his comments regarding Rivercorp in last Friday’s paper.

The front page article in that same paper titled “Rivercorp chief appeals for more funding” got me tense to say the least.

What a collage of politispeak bafflegab.

It’s a good thing I did not have to read it out loud because I would choke on phrases such as “... introduce a full scale business and retention program focused on nurtuting and supporting existing businesses,” – It’s dedicated work because you have to go out and personally talk to them – “assemble information and materials as well as identify specific businesses as targetted industry sectors”, “focus on the primary job of advancing the economic agenda”, and “investigate “generational economic engines.”

Sounds like a recipe for an agenda that would lend itself completely to an inability to be subject to a performance evaluation.

In the article, Mr. Goodman was credited with stating that Rivercorp had failed (under the previous CEO) to complete the Downtown Revitalization Plan.

While completing that task may be percieved as a priority by the some of the businesses affected, the transitions experienced by older “downtown” businesses are not unique to Campbell River.

They are shared by virtually all growing communities.

I will be amazed if Rivercorp can find the “silver bullet” that will solve the core business community problems.

Regarding the “Regional Asset inventory,” why not simply call City Hall, ask for business licences, and ask the helpful person to print you a list of each of the categories of business that you are interested in?

And the best idea?  Let’s create a hotel room tax so we can squeeze some more money out of the people that we can convince to come and visit our community.

Give us a break!

Please Mr. Mayor, ponder Mr. Rudan’s suggestion.  Save the City a pot full of money.  Shut down Rivercorp.  Have one Economic Development Officer work for the City.

Let it be a renewable term position.

Let that person report to one of the city managers.  Let there be some measurable parameters for their employment, with performance reviews, and without fat severance packages.

Make no mistake, This city will continue to grow.

It doesn’t really matter what the big question is, a huge part of the answer is visible in the mirror in the form of grey hair.

Campbell River needs to encourage development that is inviting to the retiring population.  That’s not just housing, it’s the infrastructure that will make growing old in Campbell River a pleasant experience.

Ted Maxwell