144 replies to this topic

[spanky123]

I don’t think there is anything to quantify at-present.

I really don’t know what role SIPP plays. Their big investment was turned down, and the mayor of Victoria was the politician in Ottawa who thought she’d be taking home a funded project.

And the biggest question is why is only one of the two main economic nodes a member. Why is Langford opposed to SIPP?

 

IIRC, SIPP was the successor to a couple of earlier economic development groups that fell out of favour with politicians. The premise was that SIPP would be the ONE development organization for the region and would have Government, FN and private funders although it seems to me like the CoV is by far the largest donor. 

 

In my opinion as an economic development org SIPP has been useless. Their own recognized accomplishments were U-Bike and a company that helped Brazilian staff get work permits in Canada that everyone pretended was a tech company. Smart cities failed due to its idiotic proposal and COAST is unlikely to fair any better now that it's #1 cheerleader (Helps) is gone and from what I understand even the local ocean tech companies wouldn't fund it.

 

Unlike it's predecessors, SIPP is good at two things and that is self promotion and supporting its benefactors. I doubt that SIPP could point to one tangible beneficial outcome from the millions of dollars it has received over the years but you would never know that from the heaps of praise and wonderful powerpoint presentations it produces.

[Nparker]

...I doubt that SIPP could point to one tangible beneficial outcome from the millions of dollars it has received over the years but you would never know that from the heaps of praise and wonderful powerpoint presentations it produces.

Millions of dollars will get you some nifty PowerPoint presentations for sure.

[Stephen James]

IIRC, SIPP was the successor to a couple of earlier economic development groups that fell out of favour with politicians. The premise was that SIPP would be the ONE development organization for the region and would have Government, FN and private funders although it seems to me like the CoV is by far the largest donor. 

 

In my opinion as an economic development org SIPP has been useless. Their own recognized accomplishments were U-Bike and a company that helped Brazilian staff get work permits in Canada that everyone pretended was a tech company. Smart cities failed due to its idiotic proposal and COAST is unlikely to fair any better now that it's #1 cheerleader (Helps) is gone and from what I understand even the local ocean tech companies wouldn't fund it.

 

Unlike it's predecessors, SIPP is good at two things and that is self promotion and supporting its benefactors. I doubt that SIPP could point to one tangible beneficial outcome from the millions of dollars it has received over the years but you would never know that from the heaps of praise and wonderful powerpoint presentations it produces.

My impression of Emily is that she's very smart, talented, likely expert at managing relationships, and maybe a good leader of people... so, this resource, paid for with direct and indirect taxation, is wasted.

 

Spanky, you may remember it right, don't know. I had a discussion w Mr. Gislason in 2015-16 while he was ending his efforts to amalgamate Chambers, and changing to a new mandate. Seemed to be making it up as they went along...

 

I want to know how much CoV, BC Gov money has been spent by this outfit. Looking at their "impact reports" there is little to point to and either a lack of understand of, or aversion to, measurement and accountability. (results?)

[Stephen James]

My impression of Emily is that she's very smart, talented, likely expert at managing relationships, and maybe a good leader of people... so, this resource, paid for with direct and indirect taxation, is wasted.

 

Spanky, you may remember it right, don't know. I had a discussion w Mr. Gislason in 2015-16 while he was ending his efforts to amalgamate Chambers, and changing to a new mandate. Seemed to be making it up as they went along...

 

I want to know how much CoV, BC Gov money has been spent by this outfit. Looking at their "impact reports" there is little to point to and either a lack of understand of, or aversion to, measurement and accountability. (results?)

I see their Society is a BC Society, called YYJ Prosperity.

 

I've pulled and analyzed the T3010 for Our Place, PHS, Vic Coalition to End Homelessness, about 5 of them for 2017-2022, from the Federal charities disclosure site. (pretty amazing increases in revenue, some stunning increases in salaries, but not the same increases in spending on services... hmmmm.)

 

Does anyone know if BC Societies are as transparent as Federal? and how to find this info?

With all due respect to ourselves, BC has a bit of a reputation in the rest of Canada as the best place to hide corp info, lol. 

[spanky123]

^ SIPP gets about $220,000 annually from the City (note the similarity to an amount some councilors tried to cut recently). That is about 25% of SIPP's membership fees. The other 69 partners contribute the remaining 75% although their 9 listed FN partners do not contribute anything financially.

 

Of their $1M+ budget, about 70% goes to salaries and admin while 10% goes to strategic plan projects. The remaining is used to run the organization and fund other groups. SIPP-Stategic-Plan-2022-version.pdf (southislandprosperity.ca)

[Victoria Watcher]

^ SIPP gets about $220,000 annually from the City (note the similarity to an amount some councilors tried to cut recently). That is about 25% of SIPP's membership fees. The other 69 partners contribute the remaining 75% although their 9 listed FN partners do not contribute anything financially.

 

Of their $1M+ budget, about 70% goes to salaries and admin while 10% goes to strategic plan projects. The remaining is used to run the organization and fund other groups. SIPP-Stategic-Plan-2022-version.pdf (southislandprosperity.ca)

 

 

 

 

 

Must be some kind of very complex formula to come up with this.  Highlands, Metchosin and Langford notably sit this one out.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 31 March 2023 - 06:20 AM.

[Mike K.]

Sooke and Esquimalt have roughly the same population, but Esquimalt pays roughly 2x. Oak Bay roughly 3x.

[Victoria Watcher]

Sooke and Esquimalt have roughly the same population, but Esquimalt pays roughly 2x. Oak Bay roughly 3x.

 

You might say it's partially based on industrial lands or commercial properties, but North Saanich that has much of that does not seem to pay too much.  Sidney and North Saanich have nearly the same population, but there is a difference in their payments.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 31 March 2023 - 06:25 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

[spanky123]

^ Suggests to me that municipal funding are tied to the actual expenses such that SIPP doesn't operate at a loss.

[Mike K.]

It looks to me like there’s a bias towards the core, and communities pay accordingly. Esquimalt is somewhat removed compared to Oak Bay, but they are both within the realm of influence and benefit from Victoria, SIPP’s ground zero. Costs then decline, the further you get from ground zero.

[Mike K.]

Or hold on, is it a percentage of the budget?

Like 0.9% of the budget?

[Stephen James]

Like CoV, SIPP doesn't understand objectives, or SMART objectives, the same way I understand them.

 

Also, the research is done, and the mic dropped, on the subject of how many objectives actually work.

(If you have more than 3, the probability of success on even 1 is below 50%; ideal is one or two.)

 

The G&M published an excellent Editorial recently about how if you don't effectively measure anything, you never fail. This idea seems to be effectively applied in many places around here. (Service providers, the city, almost every non-profit.)

[Nparker]

... if you don't effectively measure anything, you never fail. This idea seems to be effectively applied in many places around here...

Of course, even when they do measure government performance/outcomes, there is no obligation to follow-up on those findings. 

[Victoria Watcher]

It has been a year of expansion for the South Island Prosperity Partnership, Greater Victoria’s economic development agency — and that’s good news for the entire region, said CEO Emilie de Rosenroll.

 

 

De Rosenroll noted that SIPP officially launched the Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies and the Indigenous Prosperity Centre this year.

 

“We also added three executive directors and doubled our staff to steer that expansion and take advantage of new opportunities for the South Island region.”

 

https://www.timescol...expands-7179872

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 22 June 2023 - 06:35 AM.

[Nparker]

At least a few people are seeing prosperity from this agency.

[Matt R.]

Looks like it’s working perfectly! Maybe they need to expense more $10,000 bikes or staplers.

[spanky123]

Emilie is leaving SIPP.

 

South Island Prosperity Partnership Announces Departure of its CEO – South Island Prosperity Partnership

 

Wouldn't be surprised if this was related to Victoria (as well as other munis I am sure) rethinking their contributions. 

 

Can't say that during the past 8 years SIPP has actually done anything meaningful to grow the local economy but that is pretty much par for the course with development agencies here.

 

One thing I can credit Mayor Alto with is the vast reduction in personal promotion and empire-building that we saw during the past term. 

Edited by spanky123, 18 January 2024 - 02:56 PM.

[Mike K.]

Agreed.

The presentation they gave to Sooke council a few years ago (the newest muni to join) was lacking in substance and deliverables. I cannot understand why Sooke signed on as a partner. There was no deliverable, I don’t think, and when asked, they said the timelines to quantify the impact of the membership are very long. At the time Langford was not a member, neither was Metchosin. Has Langford signed on now?

[Mike K.]

Ok, so Metchosin, Langford and Highlands remain non-members.

Spanky, when did Victoria reduce its membership pledge? Do you know what the dollar amounts are now compared to before?