Citizens for a Livable Cranbrook Society provides grassroots leadership and an inclusive process, with a voice for all community members, to ensure that our community grows and develops in a way that incorporates an environmental ethic, offers a range of housing and transportation choices, encourages a vibrant and cultural life and supports sustainable, meaningful employment and business opportunities.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Mayor Stetski's Community Update - presentation to the Chamber, September 17th 2014

Community Update 2014 – Mayor Wayne Stetski

Good afternoon.  It is a real pleasure to be here today to provide an update on some of the things that have helped to make Cranbrook an even better place to live over the last year.  When I look at what is going on around the world, I am so happy that the most common day to day issues I have to deal with are potholes and urban deer and, with the upcoming change in seasons, how quickly the snow gets plowed off our streets.  We are truly blessed to live where we do!

My challenge today is to compress a year’s worth of progress into under 20 minutes.  I want to be very clear right from the start that what gets accomplished here in Cranbrook in any year comes about because of what we accomplish together.  By together, I mean City Council, City staff, service clubs, volunteers, businesses, the Chamber, the Downtown Business Association, the arts community, newcomers from a variety of cultures – all are citizens of Cranbrook who love our city and contribute to it in many different ways.  To all of you I say Thank You!


Arts and Culture

To quote from one of my all-time favourite cartoon shows, Bugs Bunny and Friends, “On with the show this is it”.  So let’s begin with Arts and Culture, which you, through taxpayer-funded grants and your own personal generosity, have had an amazing year!  Let me give you just a few examples:

·        The successful revival of the Symphony of the Kootenays.  We are one of the smallest cities in Canada to have a symphony orchestra.

·        Performances at Western Financial Place, which in the last year has included Dwight Yoakam, Alice Cooper, Larry the Cable Guy, Dean Brody, Charley Pride and the Gambler himself, Kenny Rogers.  What I do for every performer is to offer them a meet and greet from your Mayor and, regardless of whether they say yes or no to that, I send each of them a hand-written card thanking them for coming to Cranbrook.  Alice Cooper, who, as you know has performed all over the world, told FJ Hurtak that a thank you card from the Mayor had never happened to him before – another first for Cranbrook!  A quick story, though, about the risk of meeting performers before their show – Larry the Cable Guy said at the start of the show “I met your Mayor before the show. What a great guy and a real good kisser too!”

·        Another highlight was Cranbrook’s first ever multi-cultural festival, representing 12 cultures, celebrated in Rotary Park.  It will continue to grow as both a celebration of our diversity and as a tourism draw for our city thanks to our new Multi-Cultural Society.

·        Cranbrook’s second Art in the Park festival, organized by the Cranbrook and District Arts Council.  This year’s theme was a Teddy Bears Picnic, and I know a number of you took part by purchasing and dressing up a teddy bear.

The list goes on, great performances at Key City Theatre and the Studio Stage Door,  the best ever Sam Steele Days, the New Year’s Eve Family First Celebration at Western Financial Place, the International Choir Festival, Saturday afternoon Summer Sounds Music and evening Dancing in the Dark at Rotary Park, ….  We are a community rich in arts and culture and your tax dollars and your personal support are important to making it happen.


A Healthy Community

Many of you will have heard me say before that for every $1.00 each of us pays in taxes every day, $0.50 goes to the Federal Government; $0.42 to the Provincial Government; and $0.08 to City Government.  Out of that 8 cents, we are responsible for roads, garbage, snow removal, sewer, water, policing, fire services, parks and recreation, proper city planning – BASICS, I call them.  We know and respect that as your Council.  But what about all those other things that are important to a healthy Cranbrook?  Poverty.  Hunger.  Homelessness.  Physician Shortages.  Day Care Challenges.

What we try to do, as much as possible, is to focus your taxpayer dollars on the BASICS, but use our time and influence to improve our overall community health.

·        Early on in my tenure as Mayor I volunteered Cranbrook to be one of seven cities in British Columbia trying out different approaches to reducing poverty.  The Province allocated 50% of one staff person’s time to work directly with local families who are living in poverty.  Non-profit agencies from the social sector now meet regularly to talk about strategies specific to Cranbrook.  Feeding hungry children is one of the priorities, and it was great to see Christie Wheeldon’s passion to get the business community involved in alleviating child hunger.  I continue to participate on that committee.

·        Cranbrook now has its first ever Habitat for Humanity home about to be completed and occupied.  It came about because the City donated the lot and helped spread the word about what a good thing this was.  Many businesses contributed materials and donated time, as did many volunteers, working under Gord Johnston’s gentle but focussed hand.  This is just the start for Habitat for Humanity in Cranbrook.

·        The announcement that we were about to be short five family physicians, leaving thousands of patients without a family doctor, came as a shock to all of us.  I attended the first meeting organized by IHA and local physicians, where a Physician Recruitment Red Carpet Committee was recommended.  I committed the City to having a role in resolving this issue, which is important to our citizens and to our economy.  Two of our Councillors and our Economic Development Officer participate regularly on the Committee, as does your Chamber.  My role is to help convince candidates that this truly is the best place on earth to live, as one of the last steps in the process.  In the last few months, the hard work by the committee has resulted in two new family physicians, Dr. Karen Fordham – Green Clinic and Dr. Jordan Wolff – Associate Clinic, choosing Cranbrook as their home.  There is much more work to be done as our baby boomer doctors get closer to retirement age, which is a world-wide phenomenon.

These are only a few examples of the challenges. There are many others, like day care shortages, relieving homelessness by supporting the Ktunaxa’s Street Angels and promoting the Salvation Army’s revised model for a transition centre. 

As your Mayor, I struggle with how far we should go in being involved with these issues which are so important to the health of our community, and I have also begun to ask that question of your Chamber.  What role do you think your Chamber should have in social issues in Cranbrook in the future?

The City gets directly involved in improving the health of the community in many ways:

·        Ensuring that the city’s sidewalks and buildings are accessible for seniors and citizens in wheelchairs.

·        The development of McKinnon Park into a public produce garden and now featuring a new playground.  This is important for both food security and children’s health.

·        Connecting Idlewild Park to the Kimberley Ski Hill with an off-road cycling/walking trail.  Construction of the last piece, connecting Cranbrook’s Rotary Way past the Chamber Office to the NorthStar Rails to Trails will begin construction very shortly.

·        Providing land and financial support for the bike skills park adjacent to the skateboard park, which was officially opened this year.

·        Celebrating our youth.  This spring I introduced the concept of having a Youth Mayor for a Day and was very pleased to have Burke Bidder take up the challenge – she was great!

·        Providing funding to support the amazing Gran Fondo cycling event, a brain child of the Sunrise Rotary Club, which had over 375 participants earlier this month from as far away as Oxford, England. As a participant I can tell you that the event was exceptional!

·        There is an old African saying, “If you want to go faster, go alone.  If you want to go further, go together.” With that principle in mind I have been working with Cranbrook’s Service clubs to look for opportunities for them to work together on helping our community deal with social and recreational challenges.  Imagine the power of many Clubs working together towards a common goal!
As your Council, we believe in a healthy community, and we work towards achieving that, both by investing your tax dollars and our time.

Cranbrook’s Economy

While arts and culture and community health are all important, I know that many of you are here to hear about our economy.  How are we doing?  We are going in the right direction!

I had staff prepare a hand-out that provides you with details, so I will just hit the highlights:


1.      Barriers to Business Report – A City/Chamber Joint Initiative

Shortly after becoming Mayor in 2011 I issued a challenge to the Chamber Board.  People were telling me when I was running for Mayor that Cranbrook was not a friendly place to do business.  Could the Chamber please help define that; to identify what are the barriers to business so we can work on removing them?  After consulting businesses, the Chamber produced a report which led to a Baker’s Dozen of Actions that we are undertaking.  You can read it at your leisure, but some highlights are:
·        updated versions of the Relocation Guidebook and the Investing in Cranbrook Guidebook,
·        a new 3-year Economic Development Strategy, being finalized this fall.
·        allocating seats on Cranbrook’s Economic Development Committee specifically for the Chamber and the DBA,
·        Implementing Enhanced Customer Service Training for City staff (104 staff have taken the training so far), and
·        creating a checklist to help developers better understand the steps required to build in Cranbrook. 

My goal is that one day soon we will all say that Cranbrook is a great place to do business!

2.      Building Permits / Construction

Year to date figures are very positive in every category over 2013:

Residential $6,418,256 43.7%↑
Commercial $5,890,727    60%↑
Industrial $350,000      46%↑
Institutional $15,049,500 15,592%↑
Signs $233,405    145%↑

Total New Construction $27,941,888 226%↑

It’s been a pretty good year for construction!


3.      New Business Licences Issued

We have almost 1400 businesses licensed in Cranbrook.  From January 1 to August 31, 2014, 98 new businesses were established, a 14.2% increase over 2013.

Since January 1, 2014 every new business gets a letter from me thanking them for their faith in Cranbrook, encouraging them to join the Chamber and/or the DBA, and providing them with a list of resources that could help them with their businesses, which resulted from a meeting I organized with Cranbrook’s Economic Practitioners.  I’d be pleased to send a copy of that list of resources to you, and I like to think that my letter has helped the Chamber to grow its membership.


4.      One of the metrics used to determine how well the economy is doing is airport passenger usage.  Year-to-date traffic is up 10% over 2013 and by the end of the year, use is expected to surpass 123,475 passengers.  Our growth is outpacing comparable airports in BC, including Kamloops and Kelowna.


Real Estate Update

Year to date to September 10, Cranbrook has seen sales of 177 single family dwellings for an average sale price of $286,685, with an average of 88 days of marketing time.  In 2013, 132 single family homes were sold, so we’re up about 34% over last year.

Supply is trending downwards, and there are fewer homes available on the market.

The most significant improvement in sales has been houses priced between $200,000 and $300,000, as well as from $400,000 to $500,000.  Luxury housing market is still flat.

In conclusion Philip Jones states, “The local Cranbrook market continues on the path of stability with some positive trends moving forward, including the recent spike in demand in August of 2014 and the continued downward trend of the supply.  The average sale price of a house has increased 1.45% over 2013.”

As I said at the beginning, our economy is heading in the right direction!

I’m going to take a few minutes to highlight a couple of other aspects from the Community Update Hand Out. Let’s start with roads.


Road Program

·        We invest $3,000,000 a year into improving our roads, and each year the first 1% of any property tax increase goes towards improving roads.

·        Our Engineering Department, working with our Environment and Utilities Committee, has produced a 15 year Capital Plan for road repair/replacement.  If you want to know when the street you live on or work on is scheduled for replacement we can now tell you that, but be prepared that the answer could be the year 2029!

·        If you’re a BC Automobile Association Member you will know about their Annual Top 10 Worst Roads in the Province survey.  Two pieces of good news:

1.      Cranbrook’s streets were not on this year’s list, and
2.      The streets that were listed as concerns for Cranbrook largely mirrors the list of streets that the City fixed as a priority in 2014.

Public Library Washrooms
·        If you’re a library user you’ll know about the great new accessible public washrooms at the library.  My only concern is that we may have to install pay parking meters in the bathroom stalls.  I don’t know about you but for me a comfortable seat and great reading material isn’t conducive to moving along in any kind of a hurry! We are also putting in a wheelchair accessible washroom into City Hall.

Fire Hall #1
·        Before we could make the Firehall available for long term use by the Arts Council or any other occupant we needed to ensure it was safe.  By removing the asbestos this building is now poised to be an important part of downtown Cranbrook’s revitalized future.

While not covered in the handout I want to update you on the
Old City Garage Between City Hall and Firehall #1 – The Brick Building
·        This building, which is part of the City’s heritage, is now safe from the wrecking ball due to the efforts of the citizens of Cranbrook.  I love this story. Why? Because City Council and Staff were heading towards demolition, a group of concerned citizens said No – we want it saved and we’re willing to help and a majority of Council agreed. The building will be a part of our future.  This, to me, is a real example of Grass Roots Democracy in Action!

I want to share with you a few more highlights from the last year before we move to questions.

·        I represent mid-sized communities in British Columbia on the BC Mayor’s Caucus Steering Committee.  In April of this year 70 Mayors from across the province gathered here in Cranbrook and Kimberley for a 3 day spring conference.  Many of the Mayors had never spent any time here before; a lot of them said that they would be back.
·        Whenever I hear a rumour that a particular company is moving to Cranbrook, or see a perceived gap in service for our community, I follow up.  In the last year I have emailed or spoken with senior representatives of Moores - the Suit People, London Drugs, Costco and the BC Automobile Association. While none of them are planning to come here tomorrow, we are certainly on their radar and I will continue to push for them to come to Cranbrook.
·        Last spring Darrell Jones, President of Overwaitea Food Group, stopped by City Hall to say hello. (You may have seen Darrell in some of Save On Foods TV commercials recently, some of which feature Cranbrook). I asked Darrell two questions:
1.      If local business could provide local garden produce in commercial quantities would they buy it? He said Yes, that is their preferred way of doing business.
2.      Could we have further discussions with them about getting a commercial greenhouse operation going in Cranbrook, the sunniest city in BC?  He said Yes.  We have now started discussions with a list of greenhouse operators largely from the west coast to see if we can interest them in coming here.
·        In the last year we have had 3 businesses, Dr. Nish Dental, The Heid-Out and Taylor Adams take advantage of our Downtown Revitalization Tax Exemption Bylaw, which provides five years exemption for City Property Taxes for up to 100% of the costs of building or renovating.  We look forward to more businesses taking advantage of this in the future as we revitalize downtown Cranbrook.
·        One of my priorities has been to try and give local businesses a leg up on bidding on city contracts.  I am pleased to say that 18 companies attended our first How to Bid on City Contracts session, also called the Community Vendor Information Session, last week.  We will take what we learned and offer the workshop again in 2015.

Conclusion

So where does all this leave us? As I said at the beginning we are heading in the right direction as a city and as a community. Are there challenges ahead – absolutely. We need to:
·        Continue to encourage new business and reduce barriers as they are identified, while maintaining standards.
·        Continue to try and reach the right balance between tax increases, people’s ability to pay, and ensuring the City can continue to provide the kinds of services and community infrastructure that make us all proud to call Cranbrook Home.
·        Ensure that we have a supply of serviced lots available to retain and enhance industrial development.
·        Build an economy that includes solar energy and greenhouses.
·        Develop, package and market our incredible tourism opportunities

To meet those challenges will require the Chamber, the Business Community and the City to continue to work together and build on the very solid foundation that we have in place through the hard work of Past Presidents Lana Kirk and Mike Adams, current President Dave Butler, and Chamber Manager Karin Penner and her staff.

My commitment to you (you’ll see that we included information on the upcoming Municipal election in the Community Update handout) is to continue to work closely with in-coming Chamber President Dave Struthers and your new Chamber Manager in 2015, pending, of course, the outcome of the November 15 Municipal Election!

Thank you very much for your time today, and for the important part that you play in making Cranbrook a great place to call Home!

Wayne L. Stetski
Mayor of Cranbrook
September 17, 2014


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