Op-Ed

by John Hankins, CEO Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation (NEDC)

Perplexed & Silent No More

2016 has been a very exciting year for the Tourism industry in Nanaimo with Chemistry Consulting
reporting in their Nanaimo Tourism Bulletin
"July's occupancy rate of 85.8% is the highest we have seen in the 20 years that
we've been compiling occupancy rate data for Nanaimo Tourism Bulletin.
This trend has continued with Chemistry Consulting reporting in August
"It was another very strong month for tourism in Nanaimo! The community's August
occupancy rate of 90.2% exceeded that of Victoria's by two percentage points
and year-to-date occupancy levels are currently more than 7.5 percentage points
ahead of last year's YTD rate for the same period.
This trend of high occupancy is not just reflected in Hotels, campsites and B&Bs are also reporting a
banner year for occupancy.
The year started with prominent Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) such as Expedia, Trivago and Tripadvisor
listing Nanaimo as one of the ten Canadian Cities You Must Visit in 2016. This endorsement and
recognition does not happen overnight it is achieved by growing destination awareness through
Destination Marketing using social media, marketing campaigns and media relations.
Throughout 2016 the Tourism Nanaimo Destination Marketing team have been growing their social media
presence and have successfully led two large marketing campaigns and supported a third. As the CEO I
always want to see the numbers.

Hotel Occupancy highest in 20 years August 90.24% (2% above Victoria) YTD 71.48%
Facebook has grown by 73% to 11,600 as of Oct 1st
Instagram grown by 160% 9,200 followers as of Oct 1st
Tourists serviced by Visitor Centre teams 36,477 an increase of 141%
3 Marketing campaigns taking $109,680 of the Organizations funding and turning it into
campaigns to the value of $528,980, with contribution from the Province of BC, Private sector and
other Island DMOs.
Tourism Nanaimo was one of only a few organization to be awarded its full funding request in
2016 from the provinces department of Destination BC Open Pool funding.
At a presentation on July 8th to the Executive of the Nanaimo Hospitality Association the comment
was made this is the best marketing campaign I have seen in 21 years out of Tourism Nanaimo.

Core Services review

My first days on the job were a whirlwind meeting the team, connecting with key business and community
leaders and getting to know the community. Having to finalize the budget and then learn that the City of
Nanaimo passed a Project Charter for a Core Services Review at a cost of $228,900 with NEDC being listed
as in-scope service area.
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From the announcement of Core Services Review in January to the publication of the Core Services report
on May 27th NEDC was happy to cooperate with the city selected consultant (WMC) by providing all
information requested in a timely manner. The city selected consultants recommendation to Council
after completing their analysis and benchmarking against other similar sized cities which included (page
120 of the report) different organizational structures a) Retaining the current structure, b) Bring both
organizations in house, c) separate the economic and tourism development models. After considering all
these options and comparing against best practice the City selected consultants recommended (on page
121 of the report) to Council the following.

Make the City level of NEDC funding beyond 2017 contingent on a new five-year
strategic and accountability plan for NEDC and development of the overall
Nanaimo economy.
The report did not recommend the need for a new Partnership Agreement or to remove Tourism from
NEDC.
CBRE Hotels Report
During the tenure of Ms Samborski as the City of Nanaimos NEDC Board appointee NEDC was involved in
the creation of the RFP for VICC Hotel Market Feasibility Study and the selection process of the Consultant.
The report was submitted to the city on May 10th, 2016 and held over and finally presented to Council on
September 19th, 2016 during this time NEDC was not permitted to see a copy of the CBRE report.
NEDC did support the attraction of meetings and conventions by using the services of a third-party
consultant to work with the VICC and hoteliers to promote Nanaimo as a destination to hold meetings
and conventions and sporting events. The consultants contract was not renewed beyond the end of April
2016. Tourism Nanaimo on behalf of the Nanaimo Hospitality Association administers a grant program to
support the growth of overnight visitation to Nanaimo through the development of festivals and events,
including sporting events. It specifically states the fund cannot be applied to conferences and
conventions, without this fund being made available to support conferences and conventions it will
restrict the ability to attract certain conferences.
The CBRE Report in the Executive Summary states on page i The current Nanaimo market only has the
capacity to accommodate one new hotel and we have assumed this property to be the subject proposed
VICC Hotel
NEDC has been working with a hotel developer out of the USA who has been pushing to know when the
Gordon Street site would be back on the market. The developer has visited the site and toured the
Conference Centre. The developer is so keen to hear from the city that the Owner posted a comment to
a Linked-In post on my profile page as follows We are ready to build a hotel!!! Cameron Gunter, Owner,
PEG Development, LLC.
The response from the CAO to my email of Sept 12th informing her of this further enquiry was as follows.
as I have over the past 6 months, that the first step is for Council to receive the CBRE study on VICC and
the Hotel. Unfortunately, the agenda ran long in July so the consultants had to be rescheduled to
September 19, 2016. At this open council meeting, council and the public will have a chance to question
the consultants on their findings on September 19, 2016.
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The Gordon Street site is not listed on the Councils strategic priorities that was distributed on August 10th,
2016.
Winning Team
The Tourism Nanaimo team has received independent recognition from the industry (our destination
marketing peers) sharing in the award for the 2016 TVI Multi-Media Marketing Award at the TVI Annual
Conference for the Share Vancouver Island campaign.
In 2016 Tourism Nanaimo did not allocate any additional resources to the attraction of meetings and
conventions and to my knowledge did not receive such a request from Council or City Staff. If there is
desire by Council to provide a different direction, then as the shareholder NEDC would respect that
request and get to work unleashing your award winning Tourism Destination development team to work
with VICC and the Nanaimo Hotel Association to develop a plan for implementation in 2017.
Organizational Structural Communication and timeline
In Economic Development you always need to be prepared to jump on opportunities or to deal with
economic challenges I have to say though nothing could have prepared me for the CAO sharing with me
on October 13th at approximately 3pm of Councils motion of the In-Camera meeting held on October 3rd,
2016, concerning the Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation (NEDC) being
The City deliver economic development services through the Nanaimo Economic Development
Corporation and deliver tourism, destination marketing and conference marketing services through one
or more alternative service providers.
As the CEO of a municipal organization where the city is the only shareholder I must respect their decision.
I do though as a CEO charged with delivering Economic Development and Tourism services and leading a
hard-working dedicated team deserve to be heard.
Why was the decision made without council asking for input from the NEDC CEO and staff who are
employed as experts in their field? I attended and presented at the tourism roundtable hosted by the
CAO and at no time during the presentations did I hear a tourism stakeholder recommend tourism be
removed from NEDC.
Why was the decision to inform the NEDC board made at such a late time at the end of the week? The
full NEDC Board was informed of this decision via an email by the CAO on Friday 14th October at 3:12pm
with an attachment of the Information Report which was being published on the City website at the same
time.
Perplexed - Partnership Agreement
Oct 17th at the 2 hour, 22 minutes and 54 seconds of the October 17th Council meeting Ms Samra when
responding to a question on Councils requirement to hear back from NEDCs on their response to the
Partnership agreement stated so they (NEDC) have had it for a period of time, so if it would be helpful to
move it along because we have tight timeframes.
I am perplexed why Ms Samra as the Citys appointed NEDC board member made the above comments
to council as she was aware that NEDC could not respond to Council on the Partnership Agreement as Ms
Samra and her Vancouver hired lawyer Sandra Carter who both attended the NEDC special October 13th
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Board meeting on hearing the NEDC Boards concerns to some of the clauses committed to a redraft which
was not sent to NEDC until the day after (Tuesday, October 18th, the council meeting).
Silent No More.

The Core Review at a cost to the tax payer of $228,900 does not recommend a revised partnership
Agreement or removing tourism from NEDC.
The CBRE Hotels report does not recommend removing Tourism from NEDC.
The Nanaimo tourism industry has experienced a record year.
Citys appointed NEDC Board representative and appointed shareholder representative engaging
a Vancouver lawyer against their own municipally owned corporation to force through a
Partnership Agreement which in turn has resulted in the board to seek legal opinion
(Recommended by the CAO) to meet the deadline for councils October 17th motion. How is this
good use of tax payers money and the time of NEDCs volunteer board of Directors?
Valuable NEDC resources being redirected having to spend time providing information in many
cases the same information multiple times to answer the same question.
No opportunity afforded to the NEDC CEO, Staff or Board for input and feedback ahead of the
decision or timing of the decision.
The timing of the notification to NEDC appears to show a distinct lack of respect to staff, the
Council appointed volunteer board and the CUPE Local 401.

As the CEO of NEDC an organization funded by the taxpayers of Nanaimo I have a fiscal and leadership
responsibility (while respecting that Council as the shareholder can force their will on NEDC) to express
my concerns to the Council and Citizens of Nanaimo.
John Hankins, October 24th, 2017.