Change Starts Now!

Remarks from the opening of Shari's Campaign Office (841 Rosser Avenue)



Since October 27th, 2009, I have been campaign for change. Not just changing who sits in the mayor's chair- but more importantly, campaigning to change where we think this city should be in 5 years, in 10 years from now, changing how we go about creating the plan to get there, changing the way we work together to bring about a new vision for Brandon.



I have been working hard to show you that I would be a different kind of mayor than our incumbent; that I would do things differently. For example, I've been campaigning already for 315 days, walking from one end of Brandon to the other, knocking on doors, meeting with community groups, businesses, seniors, sports teams, parents, students, environmentalists, teachers, nurses. I've been doing research and talking with experts about how other cities are dealing with some of the issues that are challenging Brandon- downtown revitalization, economic clusters, recreation, environmental strategy, community focused policing, demographic shifts in population and their impacts on municipal planning. I've been doing my homework on how our city works, and how it could work better.



We are not launching the Shari for Mayor campaign today, but rather shifting into high gear as we enter the final phase of the election. I have been privileged to talk with you, and more importantly, to listen to you- about the kind of city you want to live in, to raise families in, to make business investments in, to out down roots in.



And I've heard a lot! Like me you love this city, but you are not satisfied with status quo. You are proud of Brandon, and you have great ideas and a passion to make it better.



As I said earlier, I'd be a very different mayor than our incumbent. And one of those differences is that I care about what the people of Brandon have to say. Because elected civic leaders must also represent the interests of the voter; which is hard to do if you have never asked them what they believe the key priorities of the city should be. Without asking, all you have is a one-man show.



So one of the things we're going to do is ask for your advice. for the next couple of weeks, volunteers will be out surveying the community, asking Brandonites about what they see as the key priorities for the incoming Mayor over the next few years. This is your chance to begin to shape the future direction of our city.



It won't surprise me to see the survey results reflect what I've already heard on the doorstep. The future you've said you wanted includes a vibrant downtown; clean, affordable neighbourhoods to raise our kids in; a safe city to retire and enjoy life in; an economy that stops the brain-drain, where our graduates don't have to leave town to find a job; a community rich in culture and entertainment. A city where, after a hard days work, you can find a place to chill with friends.



Because you want to live in a city rich with opportunity and alive with experiences.



But to get there, we need a mayor who says "I take responsibility for the future of our city", and who then can roll up her sleeves and get things done!



This election is about the direction of our city. Brandon is in a period of rapid change- we are not the same city we have been. There are many challenges associated with that- and there are many opportunities as well.



There are important questions to answer in this election. If we look ahead to what we want our city to be in five years, does our current mayor have the vision and leadership to get us there?



At the end of the day, this is THE critical question, and so this is a campaign about leadership. And this election is about leadership. And leadership is not just about cutting ribbons, throwing out the first pitch, handing out plaques. Leadership is about action, not about position.



There are now 50 days to the election.



October 27th is about how we work together. The upcoming mayoral race is not about one person holding one elected office. This election is about all the people of Brandon, who deserve a mayor who listens and talks with them about the issues that affect their lives. Democracy is about participation.



October 27th is also about getting back to the basics and focusing on rebuilding public trust and restoring confidence in City Hall. Which is why I'll be on the front steps of City Hall this Friday, September 10th at noon to outline our platform for change.



I believe in a better Brandon! But to get there Brandon needs change. On October 27th, we need to create the change want to see: energy, vision, leadership. And that change is starting right here, today. Thank you for coming.

Brandon- One Smart City

Brandon cannot build a community, nor an economy on low-paid, low-skilled workers. We need to shift our focus to economic opportunities based on knowledge. To do that, we need to invest in knowledge production- through partnerships with the College and University in the areas of research and technology transfer. We also need to invest in our human capital through increased skills, training, and education.

In the new knowledge based economy, education and workforce development are critical.

• For individuals, they will need skills beyond those learned in high school in order to get started on career paths and in order to advance they'll need to keep upgrading those skills.
• For businesses to compete, they need top-class talent that understands that innovation is linked to productivity.
• For communities to compete, they need substantial pools of talented workers that are available today, as well as in the pipeline (in education and training venues) for tomorrow.

In the past, Brandon mayors who have wanted to strengthen the economy offered incentives such as tax breaks, expansion loans, site acquisition and zoning assistance to attract or retain businesses to build advantage. The thinking was that by lowering the cost of those assets, Brandon gained a competitive advantage as a business location.

But there is always somewhere that can (and will) offer a better deal. And in today's economy, it is the human assets are where value and wealth are being created.

Times are changing. Knowledge creation and the lack of skilled workers have become core economic concerns. The last couple of MNP Brandon Business Climate surveys showed that businesses are not finding people with the skills they need. And since skills determine a person's income potential, if we want Brandon to become more prosperous, we need people living in Brandon to have higher skills and higher incomes.

To be competitive and attract those kinds of businesses and those kinds of people, Brandon needs to create more than a good business climate, we need to create a good people climate. Because for those very mobile, talented workers, quality of place and quality of life are paramount concerns. And Brandon has the opportunity to be very competitive in those two areas. They are not luxuries for our economic strategy, but must haves- to attract and retain the workforce that we will need to build the new economy in Brandon.

The Mayor Closes the Sportsplex Pool

At last night's City Council meeting, the Mayor lead the charge to close the Sportsplex Pool two months after the opening of the Y pool.

I want to be clear that I am a big supporter of the Y's expansion plans in downtown Brandon.

However, I am appalled by the performance of the Mayor Monday night to foist this decision on an unsuspecting Council and community. This was a pre-emptive strike on a swimming community who already feels that they have been abandoned by the Mayor and the majority of City Council.

There is absolutely no comfort within the swimming community that there will be enough water to meet their needs with the reduction in the number of 25' swimming lanes. They feel that there was minimal consultation with them about the original decision almost two years ago. They feel that there was inadequate efforts made to address the financial situation of the Sportsplex pool. Rather than reaching out and building bridges with Brandon swimmers, the Mayor has once again demonstrated that autocracy is alive and well at City Hall.

The Mayor's decision that the Sportsplex pool will be closed two months after the opening of the Y pool is unseemly in its haste.

The Mayor's assertion that support for the Sportsplex pool threatens the success of the Y's expansion is fear-mongering at its worst.

The Mayor's zeal to ram home the pool closure amendment also subverted legitimate debate about public access, fees, the City's $250,000 a year funding for the next 20 years, and other clauses within the MOU that deserved a public airing.

The Mayor's action's Monday night begs a number of questions:
- If the closure of the Sportsplex pool was so critical to the Y's business plan, why was it not included in the Memorandum of Understanding brought forward at Monday's City Council meeting?
- Why did the Board of the Y not insist on this clause; and if they didn't ask for it, why did the Mayor put it in?
- Why did the Mayor apply such pressure to Council to amend the previously approved MOU at the last moment at 10:30 on a Monday evening?


The Mayor talked long and loud about ensuring the financial viability of the Y, but if anything jeopardizes the success of the Y's expansion plans, it is his actions Monday night. The success of the aquatic component of the Y project depends upon the good will of the current Sportsplex swimmers to transfer their membership and loyalty from the City owned pool to the private membership-based Y pool. Monday's actions are not a good strategy to achieve this objective, and I would urge the Y Board to consider the longer term relationship they need to have with Brandon swimmers, the damage the Mayor's actions could cause, and reconsider this amendment to their MOU.

The unseemly fashion that this motion was sprung upon Council- without consultation with the swimming community, or even it seems the Y itself, is plain wrong.

The Mayor talks about risk to the City if the Sportsplex pool remains open beyond two months after the opening of the new Y facility; but if future Councils reverse this decision, then would not the Y have a case to make against the City that they broke the MOU, and won't we, the taxpayer be forced to pay more to make up any shortfall as we would not have honoured the agreement? This is a costly and foolish mistake and the taxpayers of this city will once again be left holding the bag.

This decision is fundamentally undemocratic, and reflects the ongoing issues many Brandon residents have with the lack of consultation and communication the Mayor adopts on major policy decisions.

The days of the Mayor ramming through important policy without public input should be long over,but apparently they are not. I would suggest that users of the Sportsplex or those tired of this style of governance should make their unhappiness known through the media, to their City Councilors, and to the Mayor's office.

I look forward to debating this decision with the Mayor during the election.

An Election Issue? The Sale of the former Convergys Building on Sixth Street

The tenders closes today (Aug 3) on the former Convergys Building. Some food for thought when evaluating whether we got good value for the sale.

About 25 years ago, Monty Nathanson bought it from Co-op and sold it to the City for over a million dollars (I heard $1.4, but that's just a rumour and that was serious coin back in the day!). They then put a lot of dough into renovating it for an Arts Library complex. Eventually, AGSWM and Library moved across the street to new digs. The City purchased more land and closed Seventh Street to create a parcel of property for a public safety building. That didn't happen, but they did wind up renting it out to Convergys. There is some speculation that the lease hold improvements that Convergys put in gave them a substantial tax/rent holiday. Could be true... What we know for sure is that it has sat empty for over two years when Convergys left town- with no taxes being paid.

So now the tenders are closed and we'll find out to what higher and better purpose the building will be used for. Perhaps seniors housing? perhaps a police services building (gotta' love all the wiring and technology upgrades that Convergys added)? perhaps an educational centre for the College, Neelin, Westman Immigrant Services, with room to spare for a daycare and museum/ archives!

These are all interesting ideas with public value. If the City and Mayor decides that there is more value in cash with a tidy commercial sale, does it recover the opportunity costs of lost taxes, as well as the initial purchase price and public investment in leasehold improvements?

(PA) Prosperity Agenda- A Gastronomic Cluster

In previous blogs, we looked at how the clustering approach could benefit Brandon, and strengthen the economic base. We also explored some of the practical assistance that City Hall could provide if a clustering approach is adopted. Now let's have a bit of fun and look at what might be possible if Brandon wanted to promote the food and hospitality sector- a Gastronomic Cluster!

Brandon has huge potential for culinary tourism. We have valuable assets right under our (ahem) noses. We have restaurants, grocery stores, farmers markets, a culinary school- in inputs, the outputs, and the trained people to support and grow it. You can also add in the hoteliers and food processors into the cluster, and look at the data that shows most of our tourism business is from repeat visits by visitors who live in Western Manitoba and Eastern Saskatchewan.

So we have the products and we know who we're marketing it to, but to really maximize it, we need a few missing pieces....

• Showcase opportunities: wine festivals, beer festivals, Taste of the Prairies- iconic events that showcase Brandon as a culinary tourism destination. Taste the County is a destination marketing website for Prince Edward county in Ontario that gives you an idea about what Brandon could be doing in this area.
• Develop unique products that showcase our strengths: while this could be any food or beverage product, one in particular springs to mind. Assiniboine Community College has long mused about creating a brewmaster program. This would be relatively unique in Canada, making Brandon a centre of excellence for all the craft breweries in North America. Brandon is surrounded by the natural product (barley and other grains), and a locally brewed beer would definitely be both a tourist attraction as well as generate considerable "local" interest. and it builds on our strengths in agriculture, culinary arts, and education. And if beer isn't your passion, we also have a similar opportunity with artisan cheeses (think Bothwell and what Quebec has done with marketing their cheese producers).
• A robust investment strategy: it's not just about marketing, in fact marketing's role is to create the interest and buzz for the investment strategy. Because a gastronomic cluster is about economic development opportunities, not just great places to eat and drink. check out the investment site for the Ontario cheese producers or the companion site to the Prince Edward county destination site that has specific investment information for businesses looking to be part of this exciting growth area or people who would be attracted to relocating to this part of the country.

To recap- Brandon has many of the (ahem again) raw ingredients for a vibrant gastronomic cluster. We just need to put them together so that they have synergy and energy. and then build on what we have with some showcase events and festivals. And best of all, the excitement about culinary tourism or gastronomy- can be easily spread via (ahem) word of mouth, the most effective type of marketing.

(PA) Prosperity Agenda- Clusters and City Hall

Once clusters have been identified, mapped and named, what can Brandon's City Hall do to advance the growth and sustainability of our economic clusters?

Establish a solid foundation: supporting the specific frame of every cluster in the City are various attributes and characteristics. These include:

• Brandon and Westman's educational assets such as Brandon University, Assiniboine Community College, the Fire College, and the K-12 school divisions;
  
• the physical infrastructures of the City- roads, water and sewer, IT connectivity;
• Brandon's attractiveness to creative talent- Richard Florida's research into the economic importance of the creative class and the roles that aspects such as culture, heritage, and diversity can play in attracting and retaining these people are just coming to the forefront of economic development practices;
• Aligning the efforts of our educational system, the workforce, and our economic institutions- Putting these key players around the table creates a solid partnership base and opens further opportunities.

Build relationships: Successful cluster strategy is built on inter-firm collaboration and the tacit knowledge that resides in people and processes. Cluster leadership councils and associations help facilitate the dissemination of this knowledge as well as provide an effective lobbying and public advocacy voice.

Deepen skills and talent: Educational facilities play a lead role in ensuring that clusters have the workforce that they need to be successful. City Hall can be a link between industry and education, and this role will be explored further in the One Smart City postings in this blog.

Align innovation investments: Investments in research and development, centres of excellence, and business innovation are critical components to economic growth and cluster-strategy development. For a city its size, Brandon's economic base has access to unique R&D capabilities within their College and University. Currently, the limited collaboration in healthcare, agriculture, and environmental research only scratches the surface of the potential opportunities of private sector partnership with our educational institutions.

Accelerate entrepreneurship: Talent and research are necessary, but it takes entrepreneurship to translate good ideas into successful products and services. Brandon's City Hall and the Mayor can support entrepreneurship by supporting entrepreneurial networks, the Chamber of Commerce, creating cluster-focused incubators, organizing small-business centres around cluster expertise, and encouraging entrepreneurship education in highschools, the College and the University. Brandon ranked 31 of 36 Canadian cities in the Canadian Federation of Independent Business listing.

Open global opportunities: Successful clusters extend their networks to distant markets, vendors, and institutions. City Hall can help support this growth by supporting participation in international conferences, trade shows, and study tours.


Clusters are not silver bullets, but rather one arrow in a quiver of opportunities for economic development. Properly designed and applied, they offer a promising way to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth and can play a key role in establishing Brandon's Prosperity Agenda.


The Prosperity Agenda is a series of postings exploring economic development opportunities for the City of Brandon. City Hall needs to provide leadership to provide a progressive economic strategy for our community, to encourage a new era of income growth, as well as promote a broad-based prosperity that produces the widest possible impact. I'd love to hear from you and can be reached at shariformayor@gmail.com.

(PA) Prosperity Agenda- Clusters to Drive Economic Development

How can Brandon go about systematically and strategically building it's economic base?

One approach that has been very successful in other cities and regions is a concept called "clustering". Clusters help to define key competitive advantages through indepth analysis of related industries, suppliers, services, and foundations such as workforce training, and regulatory environment. Portage la Prairie has made a committment to cluster analysis and has already used it to identify and promote industries in hitherto under-appreciated areas... to their economic advantage as a community. And if Portage can do it, surely Brandon can use this type of information and analysis to strengthen our own economic base.

So what is a cluster? Clusters are systems, not aggregation of firms. They may be connected by functional relationships (suppliers, distributors), or by competition for similar markets (cars, trains, buses, and planes could be part of a transportation cluster). They are defined by relationships, not memberships. They are often overlapping and interdependent. And most importantly for econmic planning in Brandon, they can only flourish in an area that offers the needed human, intellectual, financial, and social capital which includes supportive public policies and programs.

It might be helpful to think of an example to help define the concept. An alternative energy cluster could contain companies that sold products, companies that built products, R&D inputs, workforce training providers, the regulatory environment, marketing and public relations support, and government programs. Cluster analysis would show strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for the cluster (not necessarily individual pieces of the cluster). The strength of the cluster would attract investment and growth.

A real world example is in Minneapolis, which is also known as "Medical Alley", where over 200 companies are clustered around medical technology, pharmaceutical, bio tech, and health care products. Minnesapolis has all the ingredients of a successful medical device cluster - industry leaders, young growing companies, entrepreneurs, education and training focused in this area. There are venture capitalists that know the industry, established medical centres that are early adopters of the technology, a strong professional association. This cluster employs only 1% of Minnesotans, but its jobs are high wage.

What would be the critical economic clusters in Brandon? In Westman? An aggressive economic development strategy would need to know this information. An upcoming blog posting will look at what City Hall could do with this information to benefit our City's economic clusters.

The Prosperity Agenda is a series of postings dealing with economic development in Brandon. City Hall needs to provide leadership to provide a progressive economic strategy for our community, to encourage a new era of income growth, as well as promote a broad-based prosperity that produces the widest possible impact. I'd love to hear from you and can be reached at shariformayor@gmail.com.