A new city committee has a little more than three months to set the new course for the city's economic development activities.
On Monday night, city council established the select committee on economic development, which will work to fill the void the created by the dissolution of Initiatives Prince George.
The vote to not renew the agency's service agreement was made during a closed session of council on May 25, according to a rare public release of information from a closed meeting.
Coun. Albert Koehler was recorded as the lone dissenting vote.
As of Jan. 1, 2016, economic development will become a city responsibility, ending more than three decades of the work being done externally. The committee - which will consist of up to 15 members - is supposed to advise on the staffing and resource levels required to meet the city's economic development goals as well as finalize the transition plan to switching the operations from IPG to the city's planning department.
Chaired by the mayor, the committee could include members of the current IPG board (if they accept the invitation to participate) and a representative from the Lheidli T'enneh.
City councillors, the city manager, general manager of planning, the chief administrative officer of the regional district and IPG CEO Heather Oland will all sit as ex-officio members of the group.
Meetings will be open to the public, like any other city committee. The group should be finalized within the next couple of weeks with the committee mandated to make its final report to council by Sept. 30.
As for the current IPG operation, city manager Kathleen Soltis said only CEO Oland has been extended an offer of employment with the city. The remainder of the staff have received layoff notices. Any new staff for the city department will go through the normal hiring process and come on as unionized employees.
The city has said up to $500,000 could be saved by bringing economic development in house, part of which is due to losing some of those staff wages.
Accoridng to Koehler, the costs could have been found elsewhere without dissolving IPG.
"We could have just given IPG $500,000 less and had the same savings," he said.
Members of council expressed a desire to see more alignment between their mandate and IPG, but Coun. Garth Frizzell also said something has to be done to recognize the work the agency has done over the years.
"While the work of economic development agencies isn't tangible all the time, it doesn't mean that it's valueless," he said.
