The District of Sechelt is focused on attracting new business to the municipality in 2013, so council is setting up Sechelt Innovations Ltd. (SIL) to try to make that happen.
In April council committed $350,000 to the business development company it plans to set up with a volunteer board of directors and paid director of business development.
The initiative is waiting on approval by the inspector of municipalities, so for now council has created a business development committee that has the same mandate. It's being informed by Karen Peterson who was hired by the District in April to identify initial targets for industries and business that could move to Sechelt. She was also tasked with developing contact strategies for potential companies, preparing and distributing marketing materials about specific business opportunities and promoting Sechelt as a welcoming community for business development.
Once approval is given for SIL, Sechelt Mayor John Henderson said the business development committee will hand over the reins to the new board and director of business development, who are yet to be decided upon. The District is currently advertising for nominations for all positions.
"This is all about sort of the fine points of legalese," Henderson said. "When we get the final approval for the company from the inspector of municipalities, then we can appoint the board of directors and then people like Karen and the business development director will start getting paid by Sechelt Innovations Ltd. At that point I would imagine the business development committee will be somewhat redundant, so we will wind it down."
Since she started in April, Peterson has held a few targeted brainstorming sessions with invited members of the business, volunteer and medical community to solicit ideas for potential business development.
"We started with a brainstorming session in June - a launch I guess we, in our enthusiasm, called it - and it was great," Henderson said. "The room was vibrant, people really left pumped up. I think it got people thinking about what is possible for Sechelt."
He said that one of the ideas that "rose to the top" in that first session was inviting a school of veterinary medicine to set up in Sechelt, which may merit more investigation.
"Part of the foundation of SIL is we're not just throwing a fishing net out across the world to see what fish we snag, what businesses we can hook. Our focus is identifying industries, business opportunities where we have some kind of an advantage and then we're going to target those people," Henderson said.
Media was not invited to that first brainstorming session, nor any of the subsequent ones. Henderson said the reason for barring media was to allow people to talk freely without fear of being quoted.
Peterson reports to the business development committee, which is open to the public, Henderson noted.
So far Sechelt has spent about $20,000 of the $350,000 budget they set up for SIL through paying Peterson $30 an hour for her work and footing related bills.
Whatever is left when SIL gets the seal of approval from the inspector of municipalities will go to SIL, Henderson said.
He invites members of the public who have not been involved in a brainstorming session, but who have ideas for potential new businesses or industries in Sechelt, to send their ideas to him at [email protected] or to Peterson at [email protected].
