Kelowna Top City for Business in BC

[thehansenbrothers]

I just had to point out that that after all the people slagging Sharon about her poor performance, this pops up- TOP CITY FOR BUSINESS IN BC

The country just went thru its worse recession in 30 years, and yes business's closed, unemployment went up, but none of this was due to the current mayor's actions. It was global.

I have a tough time with Cal for Mayor, guy turned a little odd latley, and Gray, well his whole campaign is based on poor coporate growth, and it turns out, Sharon has the City as #1 in BC

Well Done Sharon.

Link - http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... .htm#66497

[Ub2]

I just had to point out that that after all the people slagging Sharon about her poor performance, this pops up- TOP CITY FOR BUSINESS IN BC

The country just went thru its worse recession in 30 years, and yes business's closed, unemployment went up, but none of this was due to the current mayor's actions. It was global.

I have a tough time with Cal for Mayor, guy turned a little odd latley, and Gray, well his whole campaign is based on poor coporate growth, and it turns out, Sharon has the City as #1 in BC

Well Done Sharon.
Link - http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... .htm#66497

Damn straight! . . . timing couldn't be better.

In light of this news, how could Walt and the fourchange group charge the current mayor and council as being anti-business, or not business friendly.

Could Shepherd and council do better: sure, everybody always can - but they're sure not deserving of a "kick the bums out" charge . . . far from it.

[Mtn Biker]

Exactly . . . Gray and others continue to throw mud instead of discussing their platforms and ideas. But constantly the mud gets tossed back because it doesn't stick. Case in point . . . gee maybe Kelowna is business friendly. I just don't get the arguements that nothing has happened . . are people blind, do they stay in their rooms all day? Look around, the city has several new features that improve the quality of life for everyone, not just the top 2% of the wealthy.

[John500]

Mmmm, lets see what Grey and 4change comments will be...........
Well done Sharon and council...!

[tsanderson]

People don't get too excited yet. When you look closer at the rankings you will see that Kelowna ranks second highest of all 100 cities in the entrepreneurial initiative category. We get a 52% in the "View of future opportunities rankings", and a 52% in the "municipal policies friendly to business rankings." I don't know about you, but a 52% on a report card is barely a pass!

In fact, I was not able to find a B.C. municipality with a lower municipal policies ranking. You will see that our local cities are close, but we are the lowest. Entrepreneurs, the people that provide the paycheques, are also pretty pessimistic about our future in Kelowna. There are a number of lower communities in B.C., but again 52% is not good.

Bottom line...we are ranked as having the least business friendly policies in B.C., it is the entrepreneurial spirit of our businesses that far outshines the rest!

Entrepreneurs need better municipal policies if we want to climb in the standings.

[ScottRoss]

I respect Mayor Shepherd, she is a very hard working individual, her and council have made some good decisions. For clarity Kelowna was ranked 59 out of 100, it is not that Kelowna is the best, it is just the least worst. Falling down the stairs is better than having a broken leg but it still isn't to be preferred considering all the options. Relative measurements are good for comparison but should not to be used for determining where our city needs to go. Again I respect our Mayor and our council but there is a lot of work to do, hopefully this election will be the start of it.

[36Drew]

Link to the actual report, if anybody's interested.

http://www.cfib-fcei.ca/cfib-documents/rr3238.pdf

[Ub2]

Link to the actual report, if anybody's interested.

http://www.cfib-fcei.ca/cfib-documents/rr3238.pdf

Thanks for the link 36. This once again, is one of those examples on which statistics must be shown within their proper context.

It appears that being 59th garners a ranking of 13th overall out of 100. The cities that did better were few, but did better due to the presence of the resource industries taking off. That creates a rapid growth in population; rapid growth = everything is wonderful: people making good wages and businesses making good profits.

Kelowna had it's boom and it was artificial at best due to a frenzied, speculative housing market, and in my opinion . . . created a mess. Moderate growth is what we have now and is appropriate under the present economic conditions, and yes; we could do better on how we spend our tax dollars . . . we always can.

The last boom made a lot of millionaires in this town, and these are the same group that are whining they want more; they want control, hence fourchange and whining entrepreneurs that don't give a rip about the residents that LIVE HERE! So let's vote them all in so they can fill their pockets more and create a bigger mess, and the residents (who are just starting to be heard) can be marginalized once more.

[EdCase]

The last boom made a lot of millionaires in this town, and these are the same group that are whining they want more; they want control, hence fourchange and whining entrepreneurs that don't give a rip about the residents that LIVE HERE! So let's vote them all in so they can fill their pockets more and create a bigger mess, and the residents (who are just starting to be heard) can be marginalized once more.

Please don't lump our young entrepreneurs into the same category as the get-rich-quick real estate speculators that drove the earlier boom. Our start-up companies do give a rip about the residents here because they are resident here. The speculators are just locusts who move onto the next place to plunder.

[Ub2]

The last boom made a lot of millionaires in this town, and these are the same group that are whining they want more; they want control, hence fourchange and whining entrepreneurs that don't give a rip about the residents that LIVE HERE! So let's vote them all in so they can fill their pockets more and create a bigger mess, and the residents (who are just starting to be heard) can be marginalized once more.

Please don't lump our young entrepreneurs into the same category as the get-rich-quick real estate speculators that drove the earlier boom. Our start-up companies do give a rip about the residents here because they are resident here. The speculators are just locusts who move onto the next place to plunder.

Fair enough, and I did generalize. I do know more of, than a few business owners/entrepreneurs who belong in your "locust" category and their only concern of the residents is that they patronize their businesses or attend their venues. They don't care if their endeavors disrupts or inconveniences the lifestyles of others.

[johnhenry]

What I don't get about some of these entrepreneurs in Kelowna, is how they drive like idiots with the company logo and phone number all over their vehicles. These are the companies that I mentally tag as ones to never do business with.