Business association gets new boundaries - new members as well. Car dealership will make a difference to the revenue stream.

By Pepper Parr

January 12, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON
Brian Dean, General Manager, of the Burlington Downtown Business Association is a happy camper. He has more clients.

Some of those clients are not all that pleased that they are on the client list.

Purple lines how the new territory added to the BDBA boundary.

The addition of the names on the list came about when the city went along with the BDBA request to enlarge their boundaries. They now extend further north on Brant; take in a large chunk on the west and a bit of land on the east.

Every commercial operation within those boundaries is automatically a member of the BDBA which adds to the BDBA revenue base because commercial operations are automatically members of association.

Dean does a good job of representing the commercial interests of the downtown core. His objective is to use BDBA tax levies to make the downtown part of the city look better and to use those resources to promote programs that benefit all the commercial retailers and service providers.

Brian Dean, top toff at the Downtown Business Association was out drumming up business for those of his members that took part in the Red Bag Sale.

Good business associations add value for their members. There are opportunities to use the collective energy of the commercial sector to create a sense of place and make it a destination. Ottawa has it Byway market, Toronto has a Distillery District – Burlington doesn’t yet have a sense of identity. Strangely enough Spencer Smith Park does have an identity – it is the locale for two of the best events in the province. RibFest and the Sound of Music draw thousands of people.

Napanee has a part of town that, believe it or not, that has become a fashion destination. Napanee? So it can be done.

The BDBA has a member of city council who sits with the association as a liaison; traditionally the member for the ward fills that role – but not always.
In the “putsch” (a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government). that took place at city hall on December 18th Marianne Meed Ward was replaced as the BDBA liaison by ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster. The argument given for the change at the time was that ward 6 is kind of separated from the city and it would be a good idea to have someone from that part of the city on the BDBA. And, as Lancaster pointed out, she does have 30 years of downtown business experience.

The city council liaison is not a voting member nor is there presence required to create a quorum. Dean, the general manager, can if he wishes ask anyone at the meeting to serve as a “guest” chair. You can see where this is going; the city council politics are spilling over into the boards, committees and agencies that make so much happen in the city.

Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster thinking through the answer to a question.

Dean is quick to tell people that Meed Ward is a significant asset on his board, no one seems prepared to point out that while Lancaster did have a Spa with her name on it in the downtown core – she didn’t work at the Spa. As she told the Gazette some time ago: “I have professional managers run the place – they use my Miss Canada brand.” The Spa was closed in 2014.