Home »
A competitive Cranbrook
Cranbrook Chamber of Commerce
Executive Director’s Soapbox
By David D. Hull
The role of the City of Cranbrook, in economic affairs, is to ensure that a competitive sustainable framework is in place within which businesses, existing and new, are encouraged to develop and thrive to their full potential.
This framework needs to be transparent, fair, and defensible in order to provide a positive environment to support the private enterprise system.
The foundation of this framework is a regulatory fee and tax structure that is applied and levied in a manner that withstands a fair and reasonable test and ensures that Cranbrook is competitive when measured against other jurisdictions.
To the future and beyond
During a time of unparalleled worldwide portability of human and fiscal capital it is imperative that Cranbrook is attractive and competitive.
Business is like water. It takes the least line of resistance. Cranbrook needs to be a great place to live, work, play, and especially, do business. It is essential that new business and investment flow into Cranbrook and existing businesses not flow away and in fact look to increase their commitment to the local economy.
The key for the continued success, and sustainable growth, of the Cranbrook economy is to ensure a fair and efficient taxation structure and a regulatory model that is encouraging and not onerous. This is essential to make certain that Cranbrook is competitive and viable.
Targeted fiscal incentives, in key sectors, is as equally important to ensure a strong, vibrant and sustainable Cranbrook economy as is the overall level of taxation and the distribution of the tax burden.
If taxes are levied at a rate, or in an unfair manner, that places Cranbrook at a competitive disadvantage, and creates a disproportionate negative effect on a business’ bottom line, the result is all the citizens of Cranbrook suffer.
It is critical that the City of Cranbrook ensure that every responsibility under its purview is managed, regulated, and governed in a manner to ensure that local businesses can compete in regional, provincial, and world markets.
It is crucial that the City of Cranbrook create the most positive business climate possible to ensure the retention, and expansion, of existing businesses while aggressively seeking new economic opportunities.
Business is the essential core to a sustainable future for Cranbrook. Without businesses to create an economy, Cranbrook, for all intents and purposes, ceases to exist as we know it. We need to cement our future and ensure we remain the economic and social hub of the East Kootenay.
