Jan 31st WL Chamber of Commerce mtg

This blog post will get me in trouble.... again

Yesterday, I had the pleasure to attend the Jan 31st WL and District Chamber of Commerce, on behalf of the Best Western WL Hotel and the Chamber had two guests:

1) Paul Eves from Scotiabank addressed Chamber members in attendance to discuss the Junior Achievement BC program and talked about the strength of the program for our local youth including running the program at Columneetza Secondary.  See a video below highlighting the program from SHAW-TV and you can find more information on the Junior Achievement program here

SHAW-TV Video:




2) Graham Kelsey (former President of the Central Cariboo Arts/Culture Society - website here) gave a talk about the strength of the Arts and Culture Sector, both in Canada and in the Central Cariboo region by referencing to a Conference Board of Canada study which says the economic impact of the Cultural Sector in 2007 was $84.7 billion.  Read more here.  He also referenced to a study from Kelowna in 2011 and updated in 2011 which said, for the City of Kelowna, the Culture Sector had a economic impact of $143.8 million - you can read the full study by UBC - Okanagan Branch here.  In addition, he made reference to yesterday's BC Government financial announcement into BC's Creative Sector which you can read in full here

He also made mention of the history of the Central Cariboo Arts/Culture Function which was established in 2008 and in reciting the history of the Function, he talked about the 'vocal opponents' (which does include myself) to the Function and how the Function operates today and the relationship of the CCACS to other Arts/Culture groups in Williams Lake and area and the fact the Cariboo Regional District is the 1st of 28 Regional District to tax directly to support arts/culture on a local level and since then, none of the 28 other regional districts in BC have jumped on-board to do so the same as the Cariboo Regional District

Steve's own thoughts:

1) I wasn't comfortable with how he phrased the word 'vocal opponents'.  I thought we were over that 'bump'.  I wish he would just stick on the 'overall' recital of the history of the Function without going 'negative'.  Secondly - It would be nice to see if CCACS and their supporters, which includes Mr. Kelsey, to find or advocate for a study that reflects the size and scope of a community, like Williams Lake, and how the Arts/Culture sector positive influences the economic impact of Williams Lake and that of the Central Cariboo region and not relying on studies in bigger centres.  There is no way that you can compare Williams Lake to places like Kelowna on a legitimate level, regardless if we are talking Arts/Culture, Recreation or taxation policy.  Kelowna has a bigger tax base and obviously it has more population to draw on for tax revenue

2) I believe the time has come, in 2014, to do a 5 year anniversary review of the Arts/Culture Function and ask:

a) In 2008 - we set goals for the Function.  Have they come through
b) For the next 5 years - where do we, as the Central Cariboo region, want to see the Function doing by 2019?  Expand it region wide? Increase the scope of the Function? Limit the scope of the Function? Increase the taxation limit?

Such a review should be conducted, with appropriate public input, by the Regional District with obvious stakeholder input from CCACS and other like-minded organizations and the general public.  Such a review in my mind could/would be much stronger of the benefit of both the general public/stakeholders that rely on the Central Cariboo Arts/Culture Function

SBF