Councillor Blair Mirau outlined his desire to see the City launch the initiative this year, looking to increase the city's tax base and address issues that the current members of the business community may have, with the way the City handles their concerns.
Mr. Mirau explained to Council that in his opinion, the best way to do that is to solicit feedback from those businesses that deal with City Hall on a regular basis and then to investigate initiatives that would make expanding the tax base a priority. Increasing the prospect of business growth, as well as to allow Council to take the burden off residents and existing businesses.
The proposed community engagement project was also championed by Mayor Lee Brain, who recounted some of his own thoughts on the small business sector that he outlined during his election campaign through the fall.
As was the theme of the discussion regarding the proposed creation of a Housing Task Force, Councillor Thorkelson offered up some cautionary thoughts on the topic of Committees and Task Forces, reminding Council that for any plan to have success, the need a purpose, terms of reference and a set of deliverables would be required.
For his part Councillor Cunningham inquired if the Chamber of Commerce wasn't currently already serving that function, to that point Councillor Mirau offered up his observation that the Chamber is more of a membership driven advocacy group, though he did suggest that the could be a crucial part of the feedback process for the proposed Committee/Task Force.
After further discussion on the theme, Council voted to adopt the motion to create the Committee, with the terms and make up of the project to be decided in the weeks ahead.
You can review the full conversation on the topic from the City's Video Archive starting at the 2 hour one minute mark.
For more items on the Commercial sector of the Northwest see our archive page here.
Further items of interest from Prince Rupert City Council can be found on our archive page here.
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