Business advisory committee chair Rob Sproule inspects the group’s dwindling list of volunteers.
Being city hall’s new kid is tough.
The new kid is the last to get invited to the party and often the first to get picked on. And even though the business advisory committee (BAC) has been giving city council its two cents’ worth for almost three years on matters affecting local businesses, the new kid status hasn’t gone away, said committee chair Rob Sproule.
“We’re a new committee and we’re still working with council and administration to learn how we can help them,” said Sproule.
And yet there is the possibility that council doesn’t actually want that help.
When it came to the recent parking meter fiasco the committee’s input was overlooked. City council proposed increased parking rates and the removal of free evenings and weekends. This had Ottawa’s downtown businesses worried they would lose customers.
But for now, it is the BAC that is in danger of losing unless more people start walking through the door wanting to sign up. A sub-committee is currently processing several applications of potential new members.
Current BAC members have been leaving the committee left, right, and centre. Some stepped down in order to run for positions on council and others said they felt it was a waste of time to dedicate themselves to an advisory group that didn’t seem to have council’s ear.
The committee started in 2005 with 20 members and is now down to nine. There should be at least 14, according to the committee’s official mandate from council.
“I think the concept of the Business Advisory Committee is important,” said ex-member Corrine Pohlman, “but it needs the attention of city council in order to be effective.”
Pohlman is director of national affairs at The Canadian Federation of Independent Business. She said she stopped attending BAC meetings because of her busy schedule. The federation has not sent a replacement to the meetings even though Pohlman said, “it was a good experience.”
There are other ways of reaching city council that are more effective for the organization, said Pohlman. The Canadian Federation of Business has returned to tactics like one-on-one meetings with councillors. This method was used before the BAC was created.
Pohlman said the link between the committee and council may have been broken after the last municipal election. Before the election, city councillors were required to attend an advisory board meeting of any nature. But, after the election, the rules changed and attendance was no longer required.
Pohlman and Sproule both said interest in advisory committees as a whole went downhill and city councillors stopped attending their meetings.
“The post-election situation was sad,” said Pohlman. “Are (councillors) only going (to meetings) because they’re mandated to, or are they really interested in the issues going forward?”
West Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantiry used to attend the BAC meetings. He is known for supporting an end to all advisory committees at city hall. El-Chantiry was not available for comment but told the Ottawa Business Journal in February that he believed advisory committees waste a lot of staff time.
Sproule disagrees.
“Some councillors question all the committees,” said Sproule, “and others question the Business Advisory Committee in particular because they don’t like what it is the committee has to say.”
Some councillors don’t want anything to stand in the way of their own agenda, he said.
For now, members of the BAC are still the new kids in city hall’s playground.
Unless they can get more friends to join them, their future could be uncertain.