Ottawa’s business advisory committee has been unproductive since its inception due to an unclear mandate and a low profile within the local business community, members of the panel say.
“That’s the most frustrating part,” says Teresa Whitmore, vice-chair of the committee. “The majority of Ottawa businesses don’t even know we exist.”
Created in 2005 to give Ottawa businesses a voice at city hall, the committee has struggled to build awareness in the business community.
“I don’t know how to reach them . . . I have no idea,” says Grace Xin, executive director of the Somerset Street Chinatown Business Improvement Area. “It would be nice to know.”
Xin says if her or her member businesses have a problem they would like addressed by city hall they go usually go through Coun. Diane Holmes. “We have been working just fine, [Holmes’ office] has been great.”
In past years, the committee has struggled to find members, and recently it has been hindered by inexperienced new members.
Whitemore, a real estate agent, says that, at times, new members “didn’t know what the role of the business advisory committee was” when they joined. She says she told Rob Sproule, chair of the committee, early this year that there was a problem.
“We’re not really all on the same page,” she says she told him.
Sproule says the committee was originally designed to have annual turnover. But, it wasn’t until last June – three years after the committee began work – that any new members came onboard. Still, only 10 people took on the task though the original committee was a 12-member panel.
Most of the original members had moved on with their lives, says Sproule.
Sproule says the committee needed the influx of new blood, but it also created problems because “the orientation process didn’t happen.”
Sproule and Whitmore held an orientation for committee members in February.
“We talked about roles and responsibilities,” and “the focus of what the BAC is doing,” says Whitmore.
She says the orientation also helped members understand what the committee was and was not able to do.
Sproule says he and Whitmore plan to meet one-on-one with city councillors over the next month to determine the role of the committee.
“We need two-way communication with city council,” says Sproule. “One way advisory services don’t work well.”
Sproule says council, with few exceptions, has always supported the committee’s work and appreciates the time and effort the committee takes, though he says they may not agree with the final product.
Sproule says the city’s financial crunch causes him to worry for the future of the committee. “There was unhappiness about some of the advisory committees” at city hall, he says.
The committee is waiting for a report on advisory committees from the city clerk’s office to be presented at council “soon,” that could result in major changes to the advisory committee structure, Sproule says.