Development agency eyes ‘more focused approach’

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This article was published 04/05/2016 (3480 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AS the new CEO of Economic Development Winnipeg, Dayna Spiring believes she’s in the right place at the right time to put a charge into the city’s economy with a new provincial government, a business-friendly mayor and plenty of momentum in the city.

In her first appearance at the not-for-profit organization’s annual meeting Tuesday, Spiring hit all the right notes befitting the office she’s assumed.

But she also seems prepared to shake things up a little and try to do a few things differently.

A front-page story in the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Saturday extolling the virtues of the city’s business community — with the headline Canada’s unlikely economic sweet spot — was a perfect lead-in to the approach the energetic Spiring hopes to pursue.

“I like the way it feels to have Winnipeg on the front page of the Saturday Report on Business touted as a solid economy, a thriving environment for startups and a great city to live and work in,” she said in front of an audience filled with the who’s who of the business community.

“For those of us here today, none of what was said in Saturday’s Globe was a surprise, but we do a lousy job celebrating it,” she said.

“I believe we are at the point where it is time to capitalize on the hard work and investment that has happened and continues to be made in our great city.”

Spiring takes over the organization from Marina James at a time when a number of significant community assets have been completed, such as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Investors Group Field, the RBC Convention Centre expansion and the Assiniboine Park developments.

Last year, those powerful tourism and economic development drivers had already impacted activity in the city, with tourism traffic up compared with 2014 across the board — domestic, U.S. and international travellers.

Chantal Sturk-Nadeau, head of the not-for-profit’s Tourism Winnipeg, said, “We haven’t seen increases like that in more than a decade.”

Vince Barletta, head of Yes! Winnipeg, Economic Development Winnipeg’s private sector-led sales force, said the organization has helped attract, retain and grow companies that have created 4,350 jobs, surpassing its goal of 4,200 jobs.

Among other things, Spiring said she wants to see all the elements of the organization — including Yes! Winnipeg and Tourism Winnipeg — become more integrated and work more closely together.

After only three months on the job, she’s in the middle of leading the organization in a strategic review.

She believes that notwithstanding the strength of Winnipeg’s diversified economy, which features 10 active sectors, the organization might be more effective if it focuses on where it can get the biggest bang for its buck, something the organization has not necessarily done in the past.

“You are going to see us take a more focused approach to our strategy,” she said. “Each of the sectors is important, but not all sectors need or will benefit from the work of EDW.”

In a prior conversation, Spiring said she would like to try to see what work the organization could do to help super-charge the city’s technology sector.

Also straying a little off the organization’s traditional playbook, she said she believes it should take more of a leadership role in ongoing discussions about solving the problems around the dearth of venture capital in the city. The scarcity is the result of the extended hangover the city has suffered after the windup of the Crocus and Ensis funds.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca