It's the most wonderful time of the year.
Yes, if you're a political junkie elections beat out the holidays in terms of sheer excitement, adrenaline and full contact family arguments at the dinner table...or on the patio, or in the car, or driveway...anyhow.
Amidst the flurry of debates and panel discussions, it seems one issue just can't make it into the inner circle of rhetoric and aspirations. The role of local government when it comes to our local economy.
Is it too technical? Too dry? Too small when compared to the other issues?
Yes housing and affordability are probably the two biggest dragons we have to slay in Vancouver but local economic development is one area where the City can exercise a clear mandate (that is to say, it is well within its powers) and make progress towards attracting and fostering better jobs, enabling affordable space for locally owned independent businesses and activating our languishing industrial lands. So how come every election we barely hear a peep about what the City can do to better support the tens of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses that make up nearly 90% of our employment base?
Well, this time around we actually did get to see candidates unpack this space for a few hours this past Thursday, when local business owners, concerned residents, students and local non-profits all packed into the alternative grassroots economics school Groundswell on East Powell Street. To listen to the CJSF story and live audio of the debate visit their SoundCloud page.
The conversation started with this straightforward inquiry. What can, or should, the City do to ensure that Vancouver sees a more inclusive and healthy local economy? This was the opening question posed to the candidates by Simon Fraser University's Peter Hall, Professor of Urban Studies and Geography, panel moderator for the evening.
The evening progressed from there, and as it did the candidates shared different observations or opinions about where that line between can and should was, and equally different ideas about local government's role in the economy. Finally we're getting into it!
On the panel were incumbents Andrea Reimer of Vision Vancouver, George Affleck of the NPA and candidates Audrey Seigl of COPE and Pete Fry of the Green Party.
I suppose the good news, for those of us concerned about retail gentrification in our communities, jobs, and the purchasing power of Vancouverites, is that all four panelists agree that we can do better. How we get there varied greatly however. Here's a quick snapshot of some of the key differences.
Small business, social enterprise, wages, affordability etc.
Audrey Seigl: Living Wage should be implemented in Vancouver, wages and cost of housing are both at the core of our unaffordability crisis. A more collaborative process for involving citizens in decision making and planning in the city. More diversity needed on City Council that reflects the demographics of the city more accurately.
George Affleck: High taxes are preventing small businesses from further investing in employees. The City should continue adjusting the commercial to residential ratio and free up businesses to expand and create more jobs. A small business owner himself he was also a board member of Modo, he understands the barriers that small businesses and co-ops face and has been taking time to take tours through all the city's Business Improvement Areas to learn more.
Andrea Reimer: The City needs to find more ways to support co-ops, social enterprise and other social purpose businesses (procurement, affordable retail space) and should, similar to European cities, hire a Local Economic Planner, or create a Local Economic Development body similar to the VEC but focused on these types of local issues affecting SMEs. The City can also play a role in advocacy as it engages other policy makers (levels of government usually) that have jurisdiction and funding over the issues that the City doesn't, but that relate to local economic development, small business, social enterprise etc. A separate small business class for taxes (currently they pay the same rate if they are mom and pop or a major corporation)
Pete Fry: The City needs to realize that the types of development approved by council are at times at odds with the needs of local communities, small businesses and the residents who work in them and support them. Not opposed to such things as a living wage but introducing or enforcing a living wage is really the purview of the Province, but finding ways to reduce the burden placed on businesses by the City itself (permit delays, high transaction costs, hidden red tape) could open the door for wage increases. Pete has spent a lot of time travelling to other cities over the past year looking at the successful policies and strategies that could be explored here too.
In general, if I can offer what I believe are summaries of their overarching themes.
Audrey Seigl (COPE) government needs to play a more active role in tackling affordability, wages being of primary concern (as in increasing them) but small businesses that play meaningful roles in communities are also in need of support. We shouldn't just be OK with them being displaced because of rising land values. She also emphasized the unique perspective she would bring to council as the first aboriginal woman elected to that position, her family has cared for these lands for millennia. Social justice, inclusion, and affordability were threaded throughout the various answers and observations she provided.
George Affleck took a bit more of a laissez fair approach but specifically made note of what he perceives as a disconnect between the work of the Vancouver Economic Commission and the on-the-ground needs of small businesses (which he acknowledged along with the other candidates as comprising the majority of Vancouver's employment base). The market causes things to move around and we can't expect Vancouver to have some kind of centrally planned economy but we can better reconcile the pressures and opportunities Vancouver faces as a city that people around the world are excited to invest in, and own property in, and the needs of local populations in the city's various communities (where development invariably and inevitably takes place). I have to admit that his acknowledgement of the BIAs as a meaningful and under-utilized partner in local economic development struck a chord with me, being as I'm also Chair of the BIA Partnership's Local Economic Development Committee.
Pete Fry, a longtime small business owner himself, pointed to things like land-lift and the corresponding increase in taxes and higher lease rates that have made it increasingly difficult for locally owned (locally loved) independent small businesses to remain financially feasible. We can't just have a city of corporate chains. The current tower fetish and types of floor plates that accompany them directly contribute to this cycle of displacement, but the good news is that this is something the City can (and should) tackle in the interest of both mall businesses and the neighbourhoods who support them.
New York is currently going through this same kind of retail gentrification or retail displacement crisis. Here in Vancouver we have been raising alarm bells about the housing gentrification and displacement, it seems that retail is now starting to catch up to that conversation. Pete is arguably one of the most vocal of all candidates in this regard.
Andrea Reimer's several years of experience on Council was evident as she walked the audience through case studies and examples of how the City functions internally in relationship to the private sector, communities, and other levels of government. Councillor Reimer emphasized that this current government was already looking into such things as split assessments, taxing the commercial rate payers on ground floor for their commercial component and not the speculative residential value being generated above them (residential is the highest best use, highest value space, but commercial rate payers pay about 4 times more than residential rate payers so it's a double whammy if a property is assessed based on what kind of a condo tower it could be and then Ma and Pop Store ends up paying taxes based on that). She also acknowledged better connecting built form to the local economy (it's in the Vision Vancouver Platform, Growing an Economy for All Vancouver section) and the City's own goals around procurement and use of its real estate assets for community impact. She pushed back a bit on the tax question though and emphasized that businesses do use up more municipal infrastructure and services and therefore it is not wholly unfair that they pay more. Addressing the hot-spots and split assessments however remains important.
To listen to the full recording of the panel discussion visit the SFU CJSF SoundCloud account.
If you have any ideas about what the City can do to help local small businesses thrive share them below, and while you're at it why not write these candidates and let them know too.