Published Articles

Getting Organized for Budget Investments (in Business Examiner)

With the federal budget due out on January 27th, the Chamber of Commerce has been busy consulting with our own members to provide input for the budget’s preparation. We met with Minister Flaherty when he was in Victoria for a pre-budget consultation on the 12th of this month and with the federal minister of revenue on the 16th.

From consultation with our members we know that access to credit, infrastructure investments and attention to social housing are all important for our region. Of these, it appears that infrastructure investment is achieving the highest profile.

Infrastructure investment in the budget is both a great opportunity for our region as well as a challenge. It appears as though infrastructure will be broadly defined, not only bricks and mortar, but also technologies and educational infrastructure. The key to projects that are likely to be funded is that they will show a positive long-term economic impact to the region. In addition, projects will have to be ready to come off the planning pages and implemented in a very short time frame, likely to be four to six months. That means in order for the region to be successful in securing project funding, we will need to work together to quickly identify those projects that fall into the criteria, whether they are located in Saanich, Sidney or Sooke. And we may need to be prepared to expedite processes on the municipal level in order to benefit from the program.

To prepare, we need to compile a list of projects to present to the federal government. Our immediate step in that process at the Chamber is to contact stakeholders in the community who we know have significant projects on the planning books already. Those stakeholders may be municipal governments, industry groups, or organizations. We need to evaluate the readiness of projects through a matrix to consider at what stage the project is at. For example, has the proposed project completed any required environmental approvals, does it have support from the community, and are there additional sources of funding in place? Those projects that are ready to pop will be serious contenders for federal government infrastructure funding. Those that have a significant time to go through planning and approval processes are not likely to make it to the table.

The Chamber suggested to the minister both funding for social housing as well as tax measures to re-engage the private sector in the building of rental accommodations were important elements to include in the 2009 budget. It was clear that at least the first part of that ask is being considered. Concretely, we asked for the federal government to provide a one time budget allocation matching the dollar amounts invested by each of the provinces on social housing in their 2008 fiscal year. This budget allocation should be in addition to the regularly budgeted amount through the National Housing Initiative Fund. On the tax side and regulations side, we called for a number of changes to regulations and policies that negatively affect the building and business management of rental accommodations. Much of the suggestions are reversals to regulation changes in the 1970s that negatively impacted the industry. In addition we spoke in support of capital gains deferrals on monies re-invested in other business ventures within a one year time frame, including gains from real properties. 

There are doubtless a number of competing priorities for attention in the budget. But for our region we think the issue of credit, infrastructure investment and housing top the list. Now we need to get ourselves prepared to be at the table with projects that will fit the bill and provide both immediate and long-term benefit for our regional economy.

Articles - 2010

Articles - 2009