While we're applauding the support that the District of Sechelt has pledged to give to a Coast-wide economic development alliance, we're wondering why it has taken so long for Sechelt and the other governments on the Coast to get to this point.
The need for more economic development, more jobs and better opportunities for everyone is nothing new and has been something that has been plaguing this community for the past few years.
In November 2010, the District hosted a fiscal outlook forum that brought together, among others, Helmut Pastrick, chief economist for Central 1 Credit Union, Dale Eichar, then CEO of the Sunshine Coast Credit Union, and Don Basham from the Sunshine Coast Community Foundation and manager of the community assessment project, Vital Signs.
They spoke of the significant economic challenges including high employment, pensioners struggling on diminished income, a lack of jobs for young people and an insufficiently welcoming attitude towards business.
And what of the Vital Signs report? Well, it too shows an alarming trend towards lack of jobs and economic opportunities for the Coast.
So, armed with all this information, one would think that Sechelt and the other governments would have jumped on this economic bandwagon much sooner. Why is this taking so long? How many reports, studies and debates must our governments engage in before taking action?
Now that Sechelt has supported the idea of a Coast-wide alliance in principle, it still has to wait to see what Gibsons, the Sunshine Coast Regional District and the Sechelt Indian Government District think before anything else can move forward. With our governments taking the month of August off, that means this discussion will be put on the back burner until September, and with the municipal elections looming large in November, we honestly don't believe that any of our politicians will do much of anything until they are re-elected or new people take their positions around the government tables.
We know the wheels of government bureaucracy often move at a snail's pace, but this is starting to get really frustrating. If you are a business owner in this community, a resident in this community trying to raise a family and earn a living, don't you want to see more from your governments? Don't you want to see your community become a more vibrant and economically stable place? We sure do.
So we have a challenge for our politicians for the rest of this term and for the next term following the November municipal election - less talk and more action. It's time to start putting these studies and reports into play and get this community moving forward.
