SHUSWAP ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

Note: The following minutes are subject to correction when endorsed by the Committee at its next meeting.

Meeting #:
Date:	Thursday, December 13, 2018
Time:	9:30 A.m. - 12:00 P.m.
Location:	CSRD Boardroom 555 Harbourfront Drive NE, Salmon Arm

Committee Members Present

• R. Martin (Chair), Director, Electoral Area E
• P. Demenok, Director, Electoral Area C
• J. Simpson, Director, Electoral Area F
• K. Brown, South Shuswap Chamber of Commerce
• R. Marshall, Community Futures Shuswap

Committee Members Absent

• R. Talbot, Director, Electoral Area D
• T. Rysz, Director, District of Sicamous
• J. de Vos, Wabybrook Farms

Staff Present

• R. Cyr, Economic Development Officer
• E. Johnson, Electronic Records Management Facilitator

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1.

Call to Order

The Chair called the meeting to order at 9:39 AM.

1.1

Guest(s) in Attendance

The Chair acknowledged the guests in attendance:

Kyle Dearing - Kyle Dearing Consulting, Shuswap Economic Development Consultant

1.2

Approval of Agenda

• Moved By Director Demenok
  Seconded By K. Brown

  THAT: the agenda of the December 13, 2018 Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee meeting be approved with the following additions:

  - Item 2.6: Selection of a representative from the Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee to sit on the Salmon Arm Economic Development Society

  - Item 2.7: Membership of the Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee.

  
  CARRIED

1.3

Adoption of Minutes

• Moved By R. Marshall
  Seconded By Director Simpson

  THAT: the minutes of the September 6, 2018 Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee meeting be adopted as circulated.

  
  CARRIED

2.

Discussion Items

2.1

Budgets - 2019

R. Cyr noted that she attached the recommended budgets for Shuswap Economic Development (SED) and the Columbia Shuswap Film Commission, as well as the SED revised work plan for background information.

• Economic Development Budget

  R. Cyr met with all of the electoral area directors and City of Salmon Arm to discuss the changes in the budget due to the withdrawal of Sicamous from the SED function in 2019. R. Cyr discussed that the Rural Dividend grant funding ($200,000.00) that SED received in 2018 requires matching funds of $133,500.00 to complete the projects. Therefore an increase has been requested to complete the rural dividend projects. R. Cyr discussed the outline of the project funding and the SED funding required to complete the deliverables of the Rural Dividend funding. A discussion was held with the committee and the recommendation was made to support the budget as presented.

  Recommendation:

  Moved By Director Demenok
  Seconded By Director Martin

  THAT: the Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee recommends to the Board that they support the Shuswap Economic Development 2019 budget as reviewed at the December 13, 2018 Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee meeting.

  
  CARRIED

• Film Commission Budget

  There has been a decrease in the Film Commission budget for 2019. There was a surplus two years ago which allowed the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) to hire a Film Commissioner on a full time basis for two years. The work completed by the CSFC has definitely been helpful to the raise awareness of film production in the Shuswap/Revelstoke region but the current budget cannot be maintained. There is also not enough film activity in the region to support a full time Film Commissioner. A discussion was held with the committee and the recommendation was made to support the budget as presented.

  Recommendation:

  Moved By K. Brown
  Seconded By Director Simpson

  THAT: the Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee recommends to the Board that they support the Columbia Shuswap Film Commission 2019 budget as reviewed at the December 13, 2018 Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee meeting.

  
  CARRIED

• Shuswap Economic Development Work Plan – 2019 - revised

  R. Cyr pointed out changes on the worksheet and the priorities projects for implementation for 2019. Some of the deliverables/projects will still require addition funding and other grant opportunities will be reviewed.

  The committee discussed potential opportunities for funding that could help move these projects along more quickly. One opportunity discussed was the Southern Interior Beetle Action Coalition (SIBAC). R. Martin is closely involved with SIBAC and noted that SIBAC is becoming the BC Rural Centre. SIBAC does not have any grant funding and will now be the BC Rural Centre and will be a knowledge centre supporting rural communities in rural economic development.

  R. Cyr is focusing on the deliverables in the work plan and noted that they may be other ways to tie in the projects that are lower on the priority list with the current Rural Dividend funding.

  The committee discussed the Super Host program and emphasized the importance for business owners to get the opportunity to take this training. K. Brown will be a certified instructor and will be teaching this training program in 2019.

  A discussion was held with the committee and the recommendation was made to support the work plan as presented.

  Recommendation:

  Moved By Director Martin
  Seconded By Director Simpson

  THAT: the revised Shuswap Economic Development Work plan be adopted by the Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee.

  
  CARRIED

2.2

North Shuswap Chamber presentation – November 26, 2018

R. Cyr and K. Dearing gave a presentation to the North Shuswap Chamber of Commerce about the Shuswap Economic Development program, Shuswap Tourism, and the Columbia Shuswap Film Commission. 13 people attended the presentation. There was a good response from the group and they look forward to working with us into the future. J. Simpson was at this presentation and noted that it was valuable for the participants and he is looking forward to moving ahead with the strategy.

The committee discussed other potential opportunities for Shuswap Economic Development presentations to assist community understanding at large about the services of Shuswap Economic Development

2.3

Work BC Application

Shuswap Economic Development required authorization from the Board to submit a grant application to Work BC for the Community Workforce Response Grant – Emerging Priorities. R. Cyr advised that she has received support from the CSRD Board to send in the application. The application has been submitted for funding approval.

2.4

Communications Agreement – Signing Ceremony – Update on other communities signing

R. Cyr provided an update about the communities that have signed the Communications Agreement. The Communications agreement has been signed by all of the participating communities except for Little Shuswap Lake Indian Band.

R. Cyr spoke with Aaron Arnouse who is a councillor on the Little Shuswap Lake Indian Band council. Apparently they have an issue with Mike Simpson of the Fraser Basin Council so they would not discuss signing the agreement with Mike Simpson.

R. Cyr contacted the LSLIB Chief and Council to see if they would like to meet to discuss the agreement. LSLIB Chief and Council wanted to make changes to the agreement. R. Cyr indicated that at this time the agreement could not be changed but changes could be discussed at the annual gathering in 2019 and be made if all of the communities were in agreement.

R. Martin noted that the communications agreement has already started opening lines of communication that weren’t there and shared an example of recent inter-community communication that has been very helpful.

2.5

Update from Kyle Dearing

Prospective Business Investor Collaboration with Development Services

SED received an inquiry from a land owner in the region who wanted to look at developing a business on his property in Sorrento. This presented a good opportunity for SED to look at a collaboration with Development Services in developing a response. K. Dearing spoke with Development Services and scheduled a meeting with the prospective business investor.

The land owner was looking at a business to create a new visitor accommodation. The owner indicated that the land was split into two pieces, ALR and non-ALR. It was observed that the land owner was looking for information at this point and doesn’t have any concrete plans. The fact that the meeting involved Development Services and Economic Development was helpful because it was more efficient to meet with the land owner at the same time so he could get all of the information required for his application.

Funding Partnership – Women in Business (Salmon Arm Economic Development Society (SAEDS), Community Futures (CF))

Salmon Arm Economic Development Society and Community Futures are working on a funding application targeting women who want to start a business. Shuswap Economic Development provided a letter of support for this project funding. The funding targets Indigenous and non-indigenous women. The application will fund up to $450,000 for three years. The focus would be to work with the Salmon Arm Innovation Center to support this project.

Opportunity for Business Accelerator partnership with SAEDS/CF

SAEDS has secured an instructor from OC at the Innovation Centre to work with businesses interested in the Accelerator program. OC has committed to a year of funding for this instructor.

The program is looking at how best to deliver the accelerator program and not duplicate services that CF Shuswap is currently delivering.

The vision is that this accelerator program will also meet the needs of the larger Shuswap program and will look at a partnership with Shuswap Economic Development.

SED Website Update

The website project for Shuswap Economic Development is underway. The RFP has gone out and there are four companies that have submitted proposals to the RFP. The decision has been made to separate the Shuswap Economic Development website and the Shuswap Tourism website. The Shuswap Economic Development website will include Shuswap Economic Development, Agriculture, and the Columbia Shuswap Film Commission. The Shuswap Tourism website will just be the website for Tourism. There will be a main landing page created that will bring together all of the services that are being delivered by Shuswap Economic Development.

The plan is to have the new Shuswap Tourism website to go live by May 1, 2019 and the Shuswap Economic Development website by July 1, 2019.
The creation of the landing page will be created after this and be completed by September 2019.

The business database will be incorporated to all websites.

New PNP Pilot Program

The Provincial Nominee Program has been updated and will be available to rural communities. The province will be providing workshops to inform the communities and provide current information on the program.

Virtual Business Walks Webinar

Shuswap Economic Development recently participated in a webinar delivered by BCEDA on Virtual Business walks. These were created for rural communities to ensure that we are getting information from all businesses in the Shuswap region.

There is a business database that will store business info and the responses to the business walk. Vernon completed this last spring and it was very helpful in obtaining information from a larger business database.

Shuswap Economic Development will work with the Chambers in the area to ensure that we are not duplicating services.

This will be delivered in the spring of 2019.

3.

Selection of a representative from the Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee to sit on the Salmon Arm Economic Development Society (SAEDS) Board

The Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee would like to nominate a member of the committee to be appointed to the Salmon Arm Economic Development Society (SAEDS) Board of Directors.

K. Brown nominated P. Demenok, P. Demenok accepted the nomination.

With no further nominations, P. Demenok will be the representative of the committee on the SAEDS Board.

4.

Membership of the Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee

Shuswap Economic Development had proposed an alternate structure to the membership of the Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee that would bring in representatives from the all of the communities in the electoral areas C, D, E, and F. P. Demenok asked about the status of implementing that change. R. Cyr advised that there are plans in place and the dates need to be secured. R. Cyr likes the concept of setting up working groups in each electoral area. The chair of each electoral area committee will sit on the Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee. The plan is to have representatives from several sectors of industry throughout the Shuswap.

P. Demenok asked what would attract volunteers to such a committee. R. Cyr noted that it would give them access to support from Shuswap Economic Development and provide business information for them on an ongoing basis.

Terms of reference for the committees are being developed.

7.

Adjournment

• Moved By R. Marshall
  Seconded By K. Brown

  THAT: the December 13, 2018 Shuswap Economic Development Advisory Committee meeting be adjourned.

  
  CARRIED