Economic development: are you a wind vane or the wind?

Sep 25, 2018 | 5:00 AM

FOR THE PAST DECADE, the city’s approach to economic development seemed focused on the Ajax mine. There was talk of economic diversification, usually about high tech but little in the way of real and substantive work on diversification was undertaken.

Similar to the Performing Arts Centre, there was no Plan B for the post-Ajax rejection period. No strategy, no goals, no meaningful budget, no timelines for developing our economy and no apparent understanding of the impact this lack of planning would have on our economy in the years ahead.

High tech was the misunderstood saviour and go-to empty response when politicians were asked, “but what if”.

The tech sector does and should continue to play a role in developing our new economy, but even there, it needs focused help from the city. We need a sophisticated and well-organized angel investor network that will keep successful innovators here. We need to train or attract more skilled employees that will allow firms to grow their businesses in Kamloops. And we need a university that is adapting and growing their science, technology and trades curriculum to match expanding industry requirements.

We also need to start looking at light manufacturing with the capabilities to build some of the technologies our local entrepreneurs could create. This means more skilled electricians, engineers, designers, fabricators and so on have to be found or trained.

However, as the name implies, diversification means looking at opportunities beyond just high tech. Agriculture, adventure tourism, financial services, manufacturing and global distribution centres are just a few that do or would work well with our location.

When many of our politicians were in full Ajax infatuation mode, small- and medium-sized business growth was ignored. The politicians and some in the business sector were betting on a Polish company’s ability to deliver on a mono-industry promise of jobs, jobs, jobs.

It was an all-in bet that failed, and in the process, demonstrated how foolish it was to put all our money and hopes on one horse. It was also foolish and perhaps even negligently lazy to allow one foreign company the opportunity to control and shape the destiny of our city.

Imagine what could have happened if over that time we had instead invested our energies and money in helping to start or to expand 100 or more new businesses. Had we done that, Kamloops would be a very different city.

How different? Well, suppose each of those businesses had over the same Ajax period of time, hired anywhere from 5 to 15 people. We’d now have a diversified and resilient blend of well-established companies employing between 500 and 1500 skilled residents.

Instead of a non-renewable, limited-life mono-industry, we would have a sustainable business mix that would have allowed us to absorb the ups and downs of normal economic cycles.

Over the next few weeks, candidates will toss out the standard catchphrases about the need for economic development and diversification. They’ll speak of high-tech without defining it, the resource sector without a deep understanding of future challenges and how Kamloops needs to be business friendly without defining types of business or just what business friendly means. In most cases, those same people will struggle to explain their solid plan for delivering on those promises.

When deciding who to vote for, keep in mind that over the past decade, Kamloops could and should have been moving into the high paying knowledge-based economy but chose to do nothing like that.

So when a candidate comes to your door, ask specific questions about their plans for growth. And, if they are incumbents, ask what they did in the past to make things better today. What do they mean when they say high tech? Does it mean designing a new app with a limited shelf life or carving out a niche and becoming experts in something like environmental technologies?

Personally, what I look for is something beyond lip service, something that is substantive, inspiring and recognizes the need to think and act with an eye firmly focused on our long-term future.

Visionary leaders have a plan and know where they are going. They are not uninspired wind vanes simply waiting and willing to be blown in any direction. They are instead, the wind — the wind that sets direction.