1st ANNUAL EVENT SUMMARY
On October 29, 2008, the Vancouver Economic Development Commission (VEDC), in conjunction with the City of Vancouver and various business associations, presented Collaborating in the Regulatory Environment, the first in a series of dialogues on municipal regulation and service delivery. This was the first event held as part of VEDC’s ongoing development of an Economic Development Strategy for the City of Vancouver, and followed up on one of the key recommendations from VEDC’s Business Climate Report. The event showcased innovations already underway at the City and private sector perspectives on how the regulatory environment might be improved. The lively and informed discussion between City staff and those directly affected by City regulations promised further successful events in the series.

---

Welcome

VEDC CEO Phil Heard welcomed all the participants. He noted that productivity was at the heart of today’s session - collaboration between the public and private sectors can significantly improve efficiency for both regulators and regulated businesses. Today’s event kicks off a process that can make substantial progress in a short time.  He thanked all those that contributed to the event and particularly acknowledged the role of City of Vancouver staff for committing to making this an annual event with a process for measuring progress. The City’s rapid adoption of the BizPal system – being demonstrated throughout the day – is an example of what can be done.

Keynote

Vancouver City Manager Judy Rogers noted that major progress has been made in bringing the public and private sector together.  Words like discuss, collaborate and dialogue are a part of today’s lexicon in a way they weren’t 20 years ago.  The City of Vancouver has embraced the notion of customer service and implemented new processes, such as the Better City Government Program and the Central Business Planning function, that improve the efficiency and overall operations of the City. The City provides many different services to a multitude of customers, and its ability to improve outcomes is limited by the roles of the provincial and federal levels of government, over which the City has no control.

Regulations are at the heart of the service that the City provides; the City’s goal is to produce effective and workable rules that strike a balance between social and individual needs.  There are four key elements in a regulatory environment: the rules and regulations themselves, regulatory processes, how regulations are communicated, and the attitudes of the relevant parties. The last three of these can be improved while preserving the rules themselves, creating an attitude of increased communication and positivity.

The introduction of the 311 system will dramatically re-orient all City practices towards customer service, improved communication and accountability. The City is looking forward to this opportunity to collaborate with the private sector, and is committed to participating in efforts to improve the regulatory process in good faith.

Program Overview

The event moderator, VEDC’s Director of Policy and Communications, John Tylee, outlined the arrangements for the day.

City of Vancouver General Manager of Community Services David McLellan gave a brief introduction to the program, and noted that the event would focus on improving the regulatory process with respect to the 5 ‘Cs’: Collaboration, Clarity, Computers (and technology), Complexity, and Customers.

Session 1 - Development Services

Innovations Underway at the City

The slides for the City of Vancouver presentation are available here.

Chris Warren, Director of Development Services, discussed the development permitting process, and new initiatives to improve service, collaborate, innovate and develop staff.  The development services department has been restructured and has a new brand, “Where dreams are permitted”.

Doug Robinson, Manager, Project Facilitation Group and John Greer, Manager, Development Processing Centre, discussed processing innovations at the City, including:
the Project Facilitator process concurrent processing of zoning and development permit applications innovations originating from efforts to accommodate Olympic Village timelines

Vicki Potter, Assistant Director of Development Services, outlined customer service and education initiatives underway in development services.

Bill Boons, Assistant Director of Development Services, discussed the City’s Regulatory Review Initiative. An unsustainable regulatory burden is being addressed and a concerted effort is being made to move towards continually updating/reviewing existing policies.  A simplified regulatory framework to ease the burden on small businesses has been introduced.

Will Johnston, Chief Building Officer and Director, Licenses and Inspections, outlined initiatives in his department around fire department access, existing buildings and small businesses. New initiatives are being planned in the areas of green buildings, increased reliance on professionals, and wood frame construction, among others.

Industry Perspectives on Development Processes

Philip Hochstein, President, Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, said he was extremely encouraged to hear the City’s interest in collaboration and improved customer service. He noted that the City’s processes differ significantly from the trend in industry towards a more do-it-yourself model.  The right regulatory framework should aim to be as easy to administer, and to comply with, as possible. His presentation is available here.

Jeffrey Fisher, Deputy Executive Director, Urban Development Institute, noted that current economic conditions would reduce permit revenue for the City in 2009. While the federal and provincial governments had quickly stepped up with financial crisis plans, action at the municipal level was not as decisive.  The developers’ situation has changed, from building everywhere to picking and choosing the right locations and municipalities to build in.  In this new environment, developers were looking for long-term certainty for investments, and in particular, for a simplification of regulations.

David Hewitt, Vice President of the Architecture Institute of BC Council, started by noting that his own organization was in the process of revising its own bylaws to remove outdated rules. He quoted the City Director of Planning: “Never let a rule get in the way of a better idea.” The trend towards collaboration was welcome, and it was an encouraging sign that, in planning the Olympic Village, City staff had come to architects’ offices to expedite the process. Project facilitators have improved the process; the previous process could get bogged down in cumbersome calculations or staff overzealousness. He also welcomed the increased use of outside professionals, noting that this could eliminate one of the layers of City review, while ensuring that professional rigour was consistently applied to information that could seem confusing to non-professionals.

Discussion

In response to a question about measuring success, David McLellan said that the scale of reforms underway, and the importance of the processes being reformed, were such that success would be self-evident. City Business Planning Director Karen Levitt noted that inter-departmental collaboration on reform was being achieved through a new process of corporation-wide business planning. In addition, implementation of the 311 system would revolutionize the information available for business planning, as had been achieved by New York City.

City Planning Director Brent Toderian said a discussion of regulations vs. incentives was simplistic because an effective system uses both.   Private sector representatives indicated a preference for incentives, for instance in green buildings, where Portland’s successful strategy is more incentive-based. A representative from the Canadian Green Building Council indicated that the LEED system was designed primarily on incentives, with regulations as a bottom baseline; ultimately regulation/incentive systems should be judged on their performance. Another participant mentioned that Vancouver’s density bonus program for housing had been successful, and that a similar program for carbon reduction could be a useful addition.

Session 2 - Transportation

Opportunities for More Transportation Innovation

The session opened with a panel presentation on behalf of the transportation and tourism industries, featuring Louise Yako, Vice-President of Policy, Communications and Partnerships, BC Trucking Association; Jim Storie, Owner and President, Vancouver Trolley Company; and Nicole Stefenelli, President, Urban Impact Recycling.

Jim noted the tourist experience in Vancouver can be negatively affected by traffic and routing problems, adding that increased activity during the 2010 Olympic Games and from new Convention Centre will make matters worse. Many issues confronted by tour operators that could be eased through actions such as access to the Granville Street Bridge, advance notice of street closures, more judgment with respect to enforcement, and balancing parking needs with bus loading zones.

Nicole noted that service access to business was limited for large vehicles, particularly in the downtown core, and that looks often take precedence over function in downtown buildings, complicating many loading bay and receiving functions.

The panel discussed possible solutions, such as permits for in-house storage of recycling containers, allowing some use of bus stops for non-transit bus loading, some leniency around by-laws near older hotels with difficult patron pick-up layouts, enforcement of pedestrian by-laws in key areas, and reforming the system for vehicle-for-hire plates that provide few benefits to operators in the City.

City Perspective

Jerry Dobrovolny, Assistant City Engineer, discussed the city’s transportation initiatives, noting that dialogues with user groups had brought these and other issues to the city’s attention.

Limited available space in the city requires trade-offs to be made.  Staff decisions are guided by City policies and principles, in particular the City’s direction to accommodate growth through alternatives to single-occupant vehicles. This has been very successful, though the downside trade-off is accepting some level of congestion. Vancouver is the only major city where the average commute time is going down.

Within its overall policy framework, the City works to improve traffic flow, including making traffic-focused signal changes, planning around busy days for cruise ship passengers, working with stakeholders around lane closures to minimize impacts, and working with companies on routing and practices. His presentation is available here: [Part 1] [Part 2]

Discussion

In response to a question about how a taxpayer-subsidized scheme like the public transit system could be considered successful, Jerry noted that within dense areas the transit system runs an operating surplus; only when expanded out to low-density areas is a subsidy necessary.

A participant asked whether the trucking industry wanted more road capacity or less regulation.  Louise replied that Vancouver had good infrastructure, but that more efficient usage was required. If 24-hour operations and other innovations could be implemented, productivity could be improved by an estimated 30-50%. Jerry added that goods movement had been a key part of the 1997 transportation plan, and had resulted in changes such as the Knight St. corridor and more left-hand turn bays.

In a discussion of the emissions cost of congestion, it was noted that most literature supports the idea that building more roads increases emissions while having a negligible impact on congestion itself.  The City of Vancouver’s focus has been on reducing the emissions from the system overall.

In response to a question about taxi licensing, limousine fleet ratios and building accessibility/loading zones, City staff noted that they were willing to look at any particular zone to determine whether the circumstances warranted changes, and that licensing rules were revised if they no longer applied to current circumstances.

There was a discussion of how to better integrate City objectives in different areas, such as transit, parking and restaurant licensing. Proposed changes are examined based on area needs.  While levels of parking have been scaled back in recent years, requirements for new establishments are calibrated to ensure existing businesses and residences can support the proposed use.

Session 3 - Moving Ahead, Regulatory Reform Elsewhere

Guy Cookson, Executive Director, Regulatory Initiatives, Straightforward BC, Ministry of Small Business and Revenue, discussed the Province’s regulatory reform initiative. Their process focuses on measuring the number of actual requirements, rather than such things as numbers of pages or actual regulations, to ensure a maximum reduction in compliance burden on businesses. This process has been central to a shift towards a flexible, results-based, risk-managed scheme, and has dramatically exceeded original targets. British Columbia is now moving to a new brand for this initiative, positioning itself as a global leader in regulatory reform. His presentation is available here.

Laura Jones, Vice-President, British Columbia and Yukon, Canadian Federation of Independent Business, discussed how regulations affect small businesses, noting that it’s not simply the regulations themselves, but all of the processes and communication associated them that consume time, effort and money. She described the experience of a small business: repeatedly being put on hold and cut off from a government hotline, then being given conflicting information, and unable to ever obtain a copy of the regulation it was seeking to comply with. She presented statistics showing the burden of regulations on businesses.  Burdens on small businesses are estimated at $5,000 per employee, nearly 5 times higher than for large businesses. She noted BC was a leader on regulatory reform because it has kept reform as an ongoing priority.  She looked forward to working with the City on this issue. Her presentation is available here.

Discussion

In response to a question, Guy noted that individual Ministries were responsible for ensuring their regulations remain effective. He emphasized that setting targets was important in achieving outcomes and that measuring results matters – for example, UK Departments are each given an annual budget for how much their regulation can affect industry.

City staff noted that the City’s process is different from these other models, because it is a bottom-up process, rather than top down.   Vicki said that a number of the City’s education initiatives were focused at addressing the issues raised in Laura’s presentation, and her on-going input would be useful in planning these initiatives.

Next Steps in Vancouver

David McLellan outlined how the City of Vancouver plans to address the issues raised during the event.

The first step will be to document all the issues raised, as well as the results from a survey form being distributed to all participants, as well as others involved in development-related regulations.

Quick wins are difficult to identify in high-level discussions, but they will emerge as processes evolve, such as the ongoing dialogue between the City of Vancouver Transportation Department and the Trucking Industry. Groups that participate in these processes also need to commit to sharing information with their members.

A further step will be gradually shifting some of the regulatory process and responsibility from the City towards certified professionals, to leverage their expertise and rigor, provided a strong quality assurance process is in place to safeguard standards. There will be sector-by-sector consultations, and today’s event has re-established momentum in this process

Last year, the Health By-Law was revised, with about 100 sections reduced to 28. This improved the enforcement and administration of the by-law, as well as its cost effectiveness, while enhancing customer service.  This success will be built on in future initiatives.

The next VEDC-sponsored event, in February, will be another important step.  It will deal with technology issues, regional business licensing, and provide a comprehensive view of outcomes expected with the implementation of the 311 process.

An annual progress reporting system, presented at an annual forum similar to the current one, will be developed. Measurement will be a key issue.  The City’s approach may not be identical to the Province’s, but a number of interesting proposals have been put forward, including the UK’s “regulation budget”, and these will be examined and evaluated.

City staff will convene a working group to determine priorities for the coming year. Because support for improving the regulatory climate at the municipal level hasn’t been as strong as at the provincial level, progress will depend on collaboration between staff and customers.  But clear wins, such as that achieved with the Health By-Law, will increase traction and impetus at the political level.

David thanked the VEDC for organizing the event, and for continuing as a key facilitator in the on-going dialogue on increasing regulatory effectiveness while reducing regulatory burdens.

Wrap Up

John Tylee said VEDC appreciated the opportunity to work with City and industry partners because improving the business climate was a key VEDC priority. 

VEDC will work closely with the City and industry associations in developing the next event in February.  This will provide an update on plans to measure progress in improving the regulatory environment, as well as covering the specific issues mentioned by David.  He invited all participants to return in February to see how things were progressing.

John thanked all the speakers and participants, and adjourned the meeting at 3:30 p.m.