11779 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

The question that needs to be asked is why the City of Victoria council has so many hours of meetings when other municipalities of the same population (and larger) meet for a lot fewer hours per week?   I think it is a case of council finding things to fill the time with.   

 

"How does one manage a city with the region's downtown core and all of the complexities that entails if not by expanding more time and resources to do it?"

"The same way VicPD manages the streets, with more officers than necessary for Saanich, which has a larger population."

"Fake news! How dare you! We're over-policed!"

"Then you're not over-worked."

[sukika]

 

"........they have stressful jobs and don’t make a lot of money...."

(they don't make anywhere near what a provincial employee makes)

 

 

A lot of people have stressful jobs and don't make a lot of money, and many employees of other levels of government are among those.  I'm sure a lot of us have gone in to work early, stayed late, or skipped breaks to get the job done, and we're not always compensated for it either.   

 

ya.  provincial employees are for the most part expected to work 35 or 37.5 or whatever hours.  and most of them do it in a controlled setting.  ie. they must attend the workplace for x hours per day.   

 

city councillors can work as many hours as they like where they like and all they are asked is to know the material and then show up to most meetings.  they can even skip some if they want.  they can take vacations and days off whenever they want.  

 

 

Exactly. And imagine what would happen if an employee of any job went to their boss and said "So I've been putting in all these extra hours working on things that are outside of my job description because I feel they are important, so I deserve a raise/overtime and free lunches because I'm getting really stressed out with all of the extra work I'm doing that you didn't ask me to do". 

[spanky123]

The Mayor is pitching her vision of Victoria 3.0 and I saw this little gem in the business plan.

 

6.2 Develop a Conference and Partnership Strategy and attend relevant trade shows to promote Victoria tech ecosystem and attract talent 6.2.1 Attend relevant tradeshows and conferences 6.2.2 Look for opportunities for the City to amplify existing tech-sector initiatives Lead: Mayor, City Staff (Economic Development) Support: VIATEC Some relevant examples at time of plan writing include: › Expo 2020 Dubai, October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021 March 22–28, 2021 is “Water Thematic Focus – Energy, Marine, Ocean, Water” relevant to Ocean Futures Cluster

 

So the Mayor thinks that a trip to a trade show in Dubai in March is in order so that she can figure out how to attract more trade shows to Victoria!

[Victoria Watcher]

that's 4d chess.

[Midnightly]

what gets me about the lunches is they are meant to represent the residents of the city of victoria, but they are spending more on these free lunches then many victoria families spend in an entire year on food.. that just seems well.. very unbalanced..

[RFS]

The Mayor is pitching her vision of Victoria 3.0 and I saw this little gem in the business plan.

6.2 Develop a Conference and Partnership Strategy and attend relevant trade shows to promote Victoria tech ecosystem and attract talent 6.2.1 Attend relevant tradeshows and conferences 6.2.2 Look for opportunities for the City to amplify existing tech-sector initiatives Lead: Mayor, City Staff (Economic Development) Support: VIATEC Some relevant examples at time of plan writing include: › Expo 2020 Dubai, October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021 March 22–28, 2021 is “Water Thematic Focus – Energy, Marine, Ocean, Water” relevant to Ocean Futures Cluster

So the Mayor thinks that a trip to a trade show in Dubai in March is in order so that she can figure out how to attract more trade shows to Victoria!

Not just any trade show, but the World Expo 2020 Dubai. Pretty big event and Helps has clearly decided she just must attend

[rjag]

and of course Viatec is playing a role here. this is an organization that has lost its bearings years ago and desperately needs a shake up of their leadership 

[Mike K.]

It sounds like UVic could be a part of the trip, too, since they're quite involved with ocean studies-based tech.

[spanky123]

Not just any trade show, but the World Expo 2020 Dubai. Pretty big event and Helps has clearly decided she just must attend

 

Silly me, I assumed that the "expo" would be related to the stated purpose of helping drive more traffic to our convention centre instead of just a luxury junket for the Mayor and her entourage. I wonder if our woke, progressive Mayor actually did any research on Dubai aside from the world class shopping, entertainment and dining. You know, the part about how they have one of the poorest track records in the world on human rights and how homosexuality is still punishable by death. Instead of taking our hard earned tax dollars and investing it in more police or affordable housing we give it to a regime that thinks that allowing women to have a drivers license is a giant leap in forward thinking.

 

Here is some more free advice for the Mayor and her staff. Instead of flying half way around to world to try and find out why our convention and tourist traffic is declining, why not simply call and ask the folks who have cancelled conferences or who haven't renewed the ones that they normally have? There you go, just saved you $50K.

Edited by spanky123, 21 January 2020 - 07:50 AM.

[spanky123]

It sounds like UVic could be a part of the trip, too, since they're quite involved with ocean studies-based tech.

 

Yep, lots of ocean studies going on in the middle of the desert!

[spanky123]

and of course Viatec is playing a role here. this is an organization that has lost its bearings years ago and desperately needs a shake up of their leadership 

 

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that this is the first Viatec has heard of the trip or their planned participation!

[rjag]

 

 

Here is some more free advice for the Mayor and her staff. Instead of flying half way around to world to try and find out why our convention and tourist traffic is declining, why not simply call and ask the folks who have cancelled conferences or who haven't renewed the ones that they normally have? There you go, just saved you $50K.

 

Because they already know why. YYJ is a B-Grade location because there arent direct flights from anywhere. We arent a hub Location like Miami, Vancouver, Chicago, San Diego, Vegas etc.

Secondly we dont have the capacity for these mega events nor the rooms.

3rd there are not as many small conventions (under 1500 attendees) anymore after the '08 financial crisis. Not as much money is budgeted in business for these events.

4th, Conventions are a US phenomenon primarily 

 

YYJ will never get international conventions of the caliber she is talking about. We will get the Truck Loggers every 3-4 years, National Canadian events such as medical, or large industry focused on Canada but those are few and far between and there are far easier places to get to from other parts of Canada.

[rjag]

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that this is the first Viatec has heard of the trip or their planned participation!

 

Oh I'm sure Viatecs fingerprints are all over this. In the last few years Viatec has become quite Woke

[VIResident]

Oh I'm sure Viatecs fingerprints are all over this. In the last few years Viatec has become quite Woke

 

um. No. Not 'woke' enough.  Looooong way to go. 

[Awaiting Juno]

Because they already know why. YYJ is a B-Grade location because there arent direct flights from anywhere. We arent a hub Location like Miami, Vancouver, Chicago, San Diego, Vegas etc.

Secondly we dont have the capacity for these mega events nor the rooms.

3rd there are not as many small conventions (under 1500 attendees) anymore after the '08 financial crisis. Not as much money is budgeted in business for these events.

4th, Conventions are a US phenomenon primarily 

 

YYJ will never get international conventions of the caliber she is talking about. We will get the Truck Loggers every 3-4 years, National Canadian events such as medical, or large industry focused on Canada but those are few and far between and there are far easier places to get to from other parts of Canada.

 

And the number one rule in any business is to know your customer.  So if the mega conferences aren't our customer, for the reasons stated, and we need a larger share of the smaller conferences left, how are we marketing ourselves to be the venue of choice for those events?  What other alternative uses of the facilities are there (ie. Weddings)?  At any rate, I'm surprised in the "Climate Emergency" that the mayor isn't hunkering down in order to minimize her footprints on the planet - or perhaps she feels she's earned enough climate credits she should be given a free pass, or worse, she feels that the climate fee that the taxpayers will be saddled with completely eliminates the harm.  

[lanforod]

If the Convention center wants more conventions they need to review their costs. A smaller convention I know of went to Sidney's Mary Winspear instead as it was less than half the cost. I'd expect a premium at the VCC, to be sure, but double?

[rmpeers]

It sounds like UVic could be a part of the trip, too, since they're quite involved with ocean studies-based tech.

Does the mayor have a minimum jet-engine emissions target that she's required to meet each year? Or is it just that there's nothing cooler than a free vacation?

[Nparker]

Does the mayor have a minimum jet-engine emissions target that she's required to meet each year?

No, but she does have CoV taxpayers to cover the cost of her "carbon offsets" so all is good.

[spanky123]

If the Convention center wants more conventions they need to review their costs. A smaller convention I know of went to Sidney's Mary Winspear instead as it was less than half the cost. I'd expect a premium at the VCC, to be sure, but double?

 

As I mentioned earlier, the City hired a consultant a few years ago to advise them on the conference centre. The recommendation was that our current facility was too small and that we should expand it which we did at a cost of $3M-$4M. The expansion yielded no significant increase in conferences and left us with a maintenance headache to the tune of several hundred thousands of dollars a year. So now we are to believe that we need to expand it again?

 

IMHO we need to really look at this and try to determine whether this is more about helping the future owners of the Apex site or it is really about trying to increase the size and quality of the conferences we are having.

Edited by spanky123, 21 January 2020 - 02:22 PM.

[Nparker]

...we need to really look at this and try to determine whether this is more about helping the future owners of the Apex site...

Speaking of which...any news on the CoV's greatest mystery?