By IAN ROSS
North Bay is working on improving its image as a business-friendly city after completing its first Business, Retention and Expansion survey (BR+E).
With a business-savvy mayor and council in place along with a surging local economy, the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development wanted to be even more pro-active to deal with issues in the business community and identify growth opportunities.
Rick Evans, manager of the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, says after 17 years on the job at city hall, most business owners feel comfortable enough with him to call and voice their concerns. But that two-way comfort level has to be extended and ingrained in his staff and through all the city departments.
“There was no structural program to do that,” says Evans.
Last year, through a provincially-funded BR+E study, North Bay joined Marathon, Greater Sudbury, Elliot Lake and West Nipissing and took steps to formally engage business owners and operators and respond to their issues.
Last fall, about 35 volunteers fanned out across the city to interview the heads of 230 companies to find out if the city was helping or hindering business.
“We wanted to make sure we heard from major plants with 300 employees right down to the mom-and-pop shops,” says Erin Richmond, a City of North Bay economic development officer. She headed up the study with the North Bay and District Chamber of Commerce.
The final report with recommendations heads to North Bay city council in March. But one major issue that emerged was that better communication was needed. The bureaucracy may churn out a blizzard of paperwork for public consumption, but better lines of communication must be established with the business community and residents.
A real “eye-opener” for both Richmond and Evans was that most people weren’t even aware of the city’s plans to reduce commercial taxes by one per cent annually over the next 20 years.
“That ties into how we can communicate better,” says Richmond.
“What caught me by surprise,” says Evans, “was that there were as many issues that were perception-related as reality. If you don’t communicate effectively to your citizenry and business community, the perception issues are every bit as much of a genuine issue as the reality. We didn’t anticipate that.”
Many respondents complained that industrial taxes were too high, when in fact they are the lowest in the province, says Evans. The City is in the process of cutting them by 66 per cent over three years.
Both say there appears to be plenty of confusion about the difference between the municipal tax rate and provincially assessed value applied to their property.
Some confused municipal taxes with provincially assessed property values.
“It’s a market valuation issue that’s a provincial problem right now for all communities, not a municipal issue in terms of our tax rate,” says Evans.
Mayor Vic Fedeli intends to clear up that confusion.
Because of provincial downloading issues regarding social programs, Fedeli says he is directing city staff to show North Bay residents on their tax bill how much of the province’s share eats up their dollars.
“It certainly makes the federal and provincial budgets look good, but it makes the municipal politicians the bad guys who have to collect the money to farm over to the province.”
Besides tax concerns, other feedback related to sourcing skilled trades and finding front-line workers.
Richmond says all the responses were fed into a database with the most pressing issues and opportunities “red-flagged” for immediate action by a response team.
Many red flags related to things like very localized water quality issues or advance warning notices of construction. Some business owners held concerns about Jack Garland Airport maintaining regular air service and how they should better use the assets there.
“It wasn’t just a complaining or venting session,” says Richmond. “All had constructive ideas and constructive criticisms. It was a very informative process.”
Richmond says the common response she heard from all business owners is how impressed they were that someone actually came to talk to them.
“It sounds crazy but it’s the first time it’s been done in the city and people are very appreciative we took the time and interest to learn about their business and concerns.”
Many were very keen to talk about what opportunities are available for North Bay.
The City will be formulating an action plan which includes a website redevelopment to help residents better navigate the site.
Another report recommendation is to make regular visitations to local businesses by the economic development department.
