Vancouver city hall wants marketing help to clean up the city’s image and promote aboriginal history during next year’s Canada 150 celebration.
The City of Vancouver advertised June 6 for consultants to plot a marketing and communications plan for so-called “public realm cleanliness.” Deadline to respond is June 20.
City council budgeted for an extra $2.8 million this year to add more garbage cans and street and sidewalk cleaners after a spike in complaints to the city’s 3-1-1 hotline about overflowing trash cans, dog feces on sidewalks and abandoned mattresses.
The tendering document said the city already has various programs ranging from the Keep Vancouver Spectacular community litter cleanup to graffiti management and a puppy poop pick-up pilot program, but research determined “the need for an overarching identity for all related city programs, activities and events,” to increase awareness and encourage “clean and green behaviours.”
The chosen consultant would begin work July 8 and face an October 31 report deadline.
On a separate June 10 tender call, city hall wants a marketing and communications consultant for local commemorations of the 150th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation in 2017. Deadline is June 30.
It wants a consultant to work from August this year to late October next year to develop and deliver branding, marketing and promotions along with the city’s corporate communications department.
The document said the city has already decided to focus on an aboriginal theme for Canada 150 after the Urban Aboriginal People’s Advisory Committee proposed a large canoe journey and all nations gathering for summer 2017 in partnership with three area tribes, Aboriginal Tourism BC and Reconciliation Canada.
“A core staff working team will bring expertise, extensive cultural and community networks, and set the stage for fulfilling our goal of strengthened relations between the City of Vancouver and the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations and strategic partners in 2017,” the document said.
The goal, it said is “to position Vancouver as the aboriginal cultural tourism destination in Canada in 2017.
In 2015, the federal government budgeted $210 million on Canada 150 celebrations across the nation.
The document said the city is expecting to spend 2,000 hours on the project.
“However this is the city’s estimate of the required time to undertake the work for each phase of the scope and should not be seen as a maximum time. The city expects the proponent to provide its own estimates of time requirements based on its experience and expertise.”
