Vancouver Economic Development Commission

City Hall – Business Leader Quarterly Dialogue

June 9, 2009, 7:30am – 9:30am

Plaza 500 Hotel

VEDC CEO Phil Heard opened the meeting at 7:45 a.m. and welcomed the attendees. Representing City Hall were Mayor Gregor Robertson, Councillors Suzanne Anton, Geoff Meggs, Andrea Reimer, and Ellen Woodsworth, City Manager Penny Ballem, Director of Communications Laurie Best, Mayor’s Chief of Staff Michael Magee, General Manager of Community Services David McLellan, City Planner Kevin McNaney, Consultant Linda Oglov, and Sustainability Group Manager Melina Scholefield.

Representing the private sector were Ron Bagan of Collier’s International, Matthew Carter of Great Northern Way Campus, Helen Goodland of the Light House Green Building Centre, Michael Heeney of Bing Thom Architects, Maureen Kirkbride of TELUS, Seth Klein of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Donna LeClair of BC Hydro, Lawyer Linda Nowlan, Ken Peacock of the Business Council of British Columbia, Jonathan Rhone of Nexterra, Council of British Columbia, Ben Sparrow of Saltworks Technologies, Pascal Spothelfer of the BC Technology Industry Association, and Julian Taylor of Intuit Strategies.

Green Economic Development

The goals for the session were outlined, in particular exploring the potential of clean technology industries as a future driver of the Vancouver economy. Input from the session will help inform VEDC’s development of an economic development strategy for the City of Vancouver, and its work supporting the Greenest City Action Team.

Jonathan Rhone, President & CEO of Nexterra Energy, gave a presentation on current trends and developments in the clean technology industry. His presentation is available here. Key points of the presentation include:

• The clean technology cluster has the potential to provide significant numbers of well-paying jobs, especially in Metro Vancouver, and earn significant export income
• Other jurisdictions are actively courting BC’s clean technology companies
  • Strong support for capital investments through Obama stimulus plan is giving US municipalities the tools to implement projects in partnership with BC firms, giving those cities advantages in both attraction efforts and innovation spin-offs
• BC has benefited from strong support provincially from carbon tax and related policies and programs such as the Innovative Clean Energy fund
  • In Canada, finite funding is available from senior governments, while in US municipalities can raise revenues through bonds, etc.
• Vancouver’s presence on ‘green city’ lists has been falling

The keys to strengthening Vancouver’s clean technology sector were further identified as:

• Demonstration projects: implementing innovative projects in Vancouver, so that regional innovation spin-offs and research partnerships are strengthened
• Culture change: city becoming less risk-averse in order to allow it to become a receptor of technology
• Business inputs: affordable office space and deep talent pool
• Perception as key location for green business: companies in other jurisdictions are attracted by the progressive policy regime in BC, but apprehensive because of the perceived difficulty of doing business in Vancouver

Mayor Gregor Robertson agreed that demonstration projects were important to get on green city lists and noted that the attraction of global firms to strengthen and raise the profile of the cluster was equally important. The key was following through with specific projects, which demonstrated a marketable commitment that could be used to attract other firms.

Julian Taylor, Principal of Intuit Strategies, gave a brief description of the clean tech cluster, underlining the supporting roles that government bodies, research institutions and labs, a deep talent pool, and the financial sector play in creating a strong cluster. Helen Goodland, Executive Director of Light House Green Building Centre, gave an overview of the green building sector, noting that the construction sector is one of the largest in the province.  Every building can be a prototype if innovation can be built into a risk-averse industry, which would permit for even more innovation in terms of renewable and neighborhood-level energy systems. Discussion noted that while the business opportunities through retrofitting of buildings were significant,  the best programs don’t just replace light bulbs, but map overall energy performance and package technologies into transformative systems that ensure high-performance buildings.

Donna LeClair, Chief Technology Officer of BC Hydro, pointed out that stimulus packages provide resources, but also highlight a jurisdiction’s commitment to a sector. She added that there is no shortage of ideas for demonstration projects locally, but what matters is moving one or two of them forward to show that it can be done. Within the City of Vancouver, there is significant potential for municipal utility models.

Economic Outlook

Ken Peacock, Director of Economic Research of the Business Council of British Columbia, presented a global and provincial economic outlook. His presentation is available here. He noted that while there has been significant decline over the past 6 months, recent weeks showed some positive signs, though it remained to be seen whether this progress could be sustained.

Ron Bagan, Managing Director of Collier’s International, described the state of regional real estate markets. Materials presented by Mr. Bagan can be found here. He noted that there has recently been a spike in sales activity due to low costs and interest rates, although a lack of land sales indicated a continued lull in development activity. All of the major recent sales had gone to local buyers, and significant movement was ongoing in ‘B’ level industrial, commercial and multi-family buildings. Over Q2, downtown availability had gone up by 1%, but overall this has brought availability levels to rates that are generally considered balanced (about 7%) whereas suburban availability is higher at 9.4%. Overall, absorption rates are still positive in Metro Vancouver overall, but negative in the City of Vancouver.

Jonathan Kassian presented VEDC’s Quarterly Economic Report, which can be found here. He noted that most sectors in Vancouver had experienced declines over Q2. Transport and freight, tourism, film, commercial building, the forest sector and arts & culture were all down, some by 10% or more from their levels a year earlier. Mining and high tech were bright spots, as well as Pixar and other film companies’ interest in the city.

Penny Ballem noted that the City of Vancouver was working hard to get ready for the Olympics, and also ensuring that it had a plan for long-term prosperity. Taking on risk was a difficult proposition for the City, and required the kind of support and trust that was being built at this session. The Mayor noted that there were a few key opportunities that needed to be taken advantage of. His recent trip to Portland had shown that other jurisdictions have effectively engaged the business community in economic development, and are especially active in their marketing efforts.

Phil Heard thanked the participants for their input, and adjourned the meeting at 9:30 a.m. Many participants in the session continued informal discussions after the meeting was adjourned.