Canmore Business and Tourism saw some important changes to its contract to supply economic development services for the Town of Canmore earlier in October.
While a new agreement to provide economic development services for the municipality was entered into earlier this year, there were several undefined areas in the memorandum of agreement council wished to have more certainty over.
General manager of municipal infrastructure Michael Fark said that resulted in council directing administration to conduct a workshop with CBT to provide greater clarity.
Fark said the agreement was designed to have the maximum amount of flexibility in it.
“Providing this flexibility did require some of the variables remain undefined; this was considered desirable at the time,” he said. “There was some concern this cost a degree of oversight from council and whether the economic development goals remain consistent over time with the priorities of council.”
Fark said at the workshop, council expressed a willingness to consider stable funding for CBT in achieving its holistic five-year economic vision statements related to growth, authenticity, ease, resilience and affordability. It also agreed that a provision for cost reimbursable services would be enhanced to clarify how council provides direction for sector development work – one of the deliverables CBT has in the agreement.
In addition to sector development work, CBT provides tourism marketing, off-season economic activity stimulation, networking and engagement, as well as leveraging its organizational strength, according to Fark.
He added changes to the agreement include adding innovation and diversification of the Canmore economy to the deliverables and requiring council approval each year for cost reimbursable services through the budget process.
The new agreement provides a funding structure where half the fees collected through the Town’s business registry would be provided as a lump sum as the stable funding portion for $150,000 and up to a maximum $200,000. The remainder of the business registry fees would then be available for cost reimbursable services. So far this year, the registry has collected $312,000.
Council voted to make the changes to the remuneration section of CBT’s contract with the municipality, noting that administration worked closely with them to craft the new section and provide greater certainty for funding.
“I like the changes and the certainty that goes with it,” said Councillor Sean Krausert. “I certainly like the creativity in crafting the remuneration section because it does give the opportunity in any given year for the business registry fees to cover 100 per cent of the cost.
“I think it meets all the requirements I would have been looking for to be achieved.”
Coun. Ed Russell voted against the motion to amend the agreement, as he had concerns about the fact they lock the municipality into CBT delivering economic development until 2020.
“I am not comfortable entering into a long-term relationship like this,” he said. “Should we make the decision to do economic development in-house, we are not doing it until after 2020.”
Mayor John Borrowman didn’t have the same concerns that changes would be hard to make by council for five years.
“From my perspective, it is still a work in process,” he said. “This amending agreement represents a great deal of work by administration and CBT. Is this the final picture for how the Town of Canmore does economic development? Maybe not and in the eventuality … another model of economic development can be delivered, I see room within the agreement to negotiate a change in service delivery.”
Coun. Joanna McCallum also recognized the flexibility provided in the agreement through the amendments, and specifically that council reviews and approves reimbursable deliverables during its budget process.
“I like how it allows CBT to respond to changes and allows them to be nimble in terms of how they respond to the needs of economic development and how they respond to council priorities at the same time,” she said.
