Click here to read Business in Vancouver's exclusive interview with Gregor Robertson on business and economic issues
Vancouver’s mayor is pledging to keep property taxes low and to focus on tech and tourism in a bid to grow the city’s economy.
In a campaign announcement made October 19, Gregor Robertson said it was time to work on creating a new “vision” for downtown Vancouver, including tourism in the downtown core. Promoting food and culture would be part of that initiative.
Robertson highlighted Vancouver’s low property taxes and claimed that under a Vision Vancouver-dominated council, the city’s debt has been reduced by $191 million.
He also promised to establish a series of roundtable meetings on tech and local small businesses, and said Vision Vancouver would made it easier for locally-owned businesses to bid on city contracts. A Vision council would also change Vancouver’s procurement policy to emphasize the “benefit social enterprises provide for taxpayers and the city.”
Roundtable discussions with small business owners and Business Improvement Areas, which are already underway, will include looking at ways to support smaller businesses in new developments. That could include encouraging several small storefronts rather than one large one, according to Vision Vancouver.
Vancouver’s small business community has given Vision mixed marks on the party’s support of local enterprises during a period of rising land costs and rapid redevelopment.
Robertson has been clear that his economic focus is on sectors like tech and digital media — not resource industries such as mining. He has also been critical of Kinder Morgan’s plan to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline.
“I see it as a downside. Vancouver has a thriving tourist industry, almost 30,000 jobs in tourism that are put at enormous risk if there’s an oil spill in our waters,” Robertson told Business in Vancouver in a recent interview.
“A seven-fold increase risk in oil tanker traffic is an unacceptable risk for the economy of the city.”
Non-Partisan Association candidate Kirk LaPointe was quick to criticize Vision’s economic plan, saying that a focus on B.C.’s traditional resource industries is the best way to boost incomes in the city, which have become increasingly distant from real estate prices.
In a recent campaign announcement, LaPointe called for LNG jobs to be based in Vancouver and said his party supports Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion plan if National Energy Board review currently underway ensures the project can be built and operated in an environmentally safe manner. If not, he would oppose the project.
LaPointe also questioned Robertson’s claim that the city’s debt has fallen under Vision’s leadership, saying Vision is only able to make this claim by adding in the debt from the Olympic Village.
An earlier version of this story stated that LaPointe supports Kinder Morgan's pipeline expansion plan. It has since been corrected to state that LaPointe would only support the expansion plan if the pipeline can be built in an environmentally safe manner.
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