While still arms' length, the relationship between the city of Prince George and their economic development branch will become more transparent.
Last night, city council approved a new service agreement between the city and Initiatives Prince George that will be in effect from Jan. 1, 2013 until the end of 2015.
Coun. Cameron Stolz, chair of the finance and audit committee that hashed out the terms, said the new agreement contains a couple of significant changes.
The first, is that IPG is to "follow 'the spirit' of the Financial Information Act's regulation with respect to its financial reporting of employee remuneration and expenses paid and individual supplier payments."
This is "one of the key things about being more open and transparent," said Stolz. The second addition is that IPG does not have any authority to commit the city any obligations outside of the service agreement without written consent.
There is also a new provision that ensures the chief administrative officers of IPG and the city as well as the elected board chairs (the mayor in the case of the city) of the two groups meet regularly.
Coun. Brian Skakun raised the common concern of not being able to measure what IPG has brought to the city in terms of job creation in the past.
Stolz said there is definite movement in the right direction in terms of measurements for success in the agency's new terms of reference.
"There's a lot of measurables and benchmarks IPG can use," agreed Mayor Shari Green, noting that the job of IPG is to create a climate where businesses will come to town and thrive and that it's those businesses that will create jobs, not the agency itself. "Has new business come in? I think yes."
