Chris Henderson (left) and Bob Chiarelli.

Tourism, commercialization of technology and promoting Ottawa as a global learning centre will be the priorities for The Ottawa Partnership this year, Mayor Bob Chiarelli and TOP co-chairman Chris Henderson told the Ottawa Business Journal in an exclusive interview last week.

Prior to Wednesday's meeting of the economic development group, Mr. Henderson, CEO of The Delphi Group, and Mr. Chiarelli discussed TOP's activities and priorities with the OBJ.

"What do we need to do locally to make this more of a destination resort? How do we position this better, for example, with an Ottawa-Montreal corridor as a destination resort? How do we communicate and market outside? It may be the Ottawa Tourism and Convention Authority or the hoteliers or the city taking leads, it doesn't matter," said Mr. Henderson of tourism in the capital.

"In its infancy right now, there is a strong commitment evolving through partners with the tourism industry that we need to conceive of and try to define a project, which would be a major tourism destination," Mr. Chiarelli said. "A site or activity in the Ottawa area so that when people come here, particularly families (who) come here to visit the capital, they will have incentive to stay an extra one or two days."

Improved co-operation among levels of government is another underlying theme for TOP, Mr. Henderson said.

"If we grow and it costs the city budget more and that leads to greater fiscal pressures here, that's not right. We've got to get this right. We've seen sufficient evidence at TOP that there is an economic development rationale, a very strong one, to support the new deal for cities that the mayor and his counterparts are working on."

"There are only limited resources at the federal, provincial and municipal levels and we should be agreeing strategically on where we should be spending the money co-operatively, rather than having mixed agendas and scattering our spending in a way which is non-strategic," said Mr. Chiarelli.

The Ottawa Partnership is comprised of five private sector members, as well as representatives from the city's three economic development agencies, educational institutions, the National Research Council and organizations such as the National Capital Business Alliance, the Greater Ottawa Chamber of Commerce and the Building Owners and Managers Association of Ottawa. Its mandate is to collaborate, advise and make recommendations to city council on issues pertaining to the growth and health of the local economy.

Four of the five private sector spaces on TOP are open for re-appointment.

The following is an edited transcript of the interview with the Ottawa Business Journal on TOP's goals for the year and the impact the group has had on Ottawa's economy.

OBJ: What are TOP's goals for this year?

HENDERSON: There are some strong themes that are emerging. TOP members have said to us we really need to pay attention to technology commercialization efforts, getting product to market, and this has been reinforced by some consultations with key organizations. Secondly, we've got to really look at how the tourism cluster gets strength and we get a greater destination attraction for Ottawa as a tourism centre, that part of our economy needs some help. Laterally, one of the unique stories that is not too well known is with our universities and colleges here. Ottawa really is a global learning centre and it is an economic development driver. It brings resources, research money, innovation into the community and we think some branding efforts and some promotion efforts would be well received. Those are three areas that seem to be very important to the business community at the moment and those three are very consistent with the 20/20 plan.

OBJ: When you say you want to focus on the tourism cluster, does that mean you will be involved in the special legislation council approved last week to determine how a city-led hotel tax might spend the revenue?

HENDERSON: No, I think TOP's role is more strategic on this and long term. What do we need to do locally to make this more of a destination resort? How do we position this better, for example, with an Ottawa- Montreal corridor as a destination resort? How do we communicate and market outside? It may be the Ottawa Tourism and Convention Authority (OTCA) or the hoteliers or the city taking leads, it doesn't matter. I think there is broad support to say let's look at making something work there.

CHIARELLI: One of the underlying principles of TOP, its mandate, is not only the identification of clusters which tourism is one but the mutual support in individual clusters. One of the clusters that needs some creative energy, needs more engagement by more people in the business community, is in fact the tourism cluster and they shouldn't have to do it all on their own. The life science council comes to TOP periodically, they look for some small amount of funding to seed partnership projects to help life sciences, we need to have some strategic tools and resources that TOP can bring to the table in partnership and with the leadership of OTCA to help tourism.

OBJ: In looking at helping the technology cluster market more products, are there specific areas you intend to focus on?

HENDERSON: If we're going to get more wealth in the community, we have look at how clusters can collaboratively work together to do that. The example people give is that telecom companies don't put out RFPs anymore for a product. In order to make a new wireless product work you may need five technologies together so we may choose to say look, as a cluster are there five technologies that can offer a new suite of services to telecoms and can we demonstrate how that works? That puts us in a position to create new markets for five companies as an example. We don't know what we'll do there yet but I think we have to figure out how to do that (and) how the buying world has changed.

OBJ: Are there other goals TOP is looking to pursue?

HENDERSON: There is a very important fourth one in the sense that we've got to get the rules of the game right and one of the things that TOP started looking at last year and will continue to look at this year and likely be more vocal within this community and nationally about is becoming appreciative of the fiscal framework between cities, provincial and federal governments, something is off kilter. If we grow and it costs the city budget more and that leads to greater fiscal pressures here, that's not right. We've got to get this right. We've seen sufficient evidence at TOP that there is an economic development rationale, a very strong one, to support the new deal for cities that the mayor and his counterparts are working on. As part of that new deal as a pure economic development dimension, we need to look at the urban economies of growth, the cluster economies like Ottawa's as being the real engines for our country and so if we're going to be spending money from the federal and provincial governments and investing in economic development, the current structures and mechanisms may not be the right ones for the market today. We can take charge I think locally in the three priorities we've identified and we'll figure out which initiatives people want to come to the table with. I also think that we're going to have to get the rules between levels of government right.

If you look at technology commercialization, clusters are where markets are so I think we've got to educate and TOP will be a voice for this nationally, from a national capital perspective to say a new deal is needed for economic development reasons and we've got to make sure we put our scarce resources on what will be the engines of growth and I don't think we've got that right now.

CHIARELLI: It's a much larger macro version of what we've been able to accomplish through TOP and that is alignment. There are only limited resources at the federal/provincial/municipal levels and we should be agreeing strategically on where we should be spending the money co-operatively rather than having mixed agendas and scattering our spending in a way which is non-strategic. We should have the three levels of government a lot more aligned and focused on where the investments should be going.

OBJ: Last year did you feel TOP set out the goals it set for itself?

HENDERSON: In the last year the broadband initiative and the Congress Centre initiative were both two real foundations for the economy that have gone awfully far and we're hearing great news and more to come. I think the answer is yes. This is always the story of what are you going to do for me this year, right, and I think that's where we are now. What I think the mayor and I do want to communicate due to the work of the whole group and the partnership that we have successes but we just can't stand still. We've got to go harder. We know that in the technology sector the issue of getting products sold is a real challenge in the global markets and we have to figure what we do there. Tourism-wise, Ontario has been losing market share. How do we turn that around? We have to be very creative. We have a great learning centre here; let's tell the world about it. These two universities and two colleges are real powerhouses. I think they are equivalent to anything else in Canada or North America. Those are, I think, drivers that we now have to ride on a bit.

CHIARELLI: I think it's important we acknowledge that the successes that occur within an individual cluster. If you take life sciences and a biopharmaceutical manufacturing centre, they have made tremendous strides in the last year in bringing that initiative on-stream, which is a national program in the pharmaceutical industry which was conceived of here in Ottaw through the life sciences council. It was funded through some funding partnerships including the city of Ottawa and the funding was run through TOP, (who) approved the allocation of that money from the city budget towards that. To the extent that the biopharmaceutical manufacturing centre has had a very successful year, that's also a success of TOP in terms of the support that TOP has given it.

OBJ: What are TOP's best accomplishments thus far?

CHIARELLI: The broadband policy was written by the business community. There was a specific subcommittee of TOP that was set up, chaired and led by Kirk Mandy. It is probably one of the best, if not the best, in North America. It defines the goals as having broadband at every door, residential, industrial, commercial, urban, suburban and rural. They were saying (it should happen) within five years from the time it was written (almost) two years ago but we're probably at about 65 or 70 per cent and we will meet that target. It basically has positioned us as probably being the best in North America for tele-business and tele-employment. There's no cost to the city (for broadband) because TOP is a partnership platform and when we conceived of a need and defined a project we then asked some group or individuals around the table to go out and create the partnership to make it happen.

HENDERSON: Companies that are servicing broadband or broadband applications have a vested interest in getting broadband to every door. That's what we leveraged.

OBJ: In the past year, TOP has supported Talentworks. Will you be doing so again and are there any other specific initiatives you plan to support?

HENDERSON: Talentworks said (they) need to reframe where (they're) going on the future. We're going to hear shortly from (them) what they're thinking from that partnership and I expect they are going to come back and say, okay here's key opportunities to track and develop talent for Ottawa's workplace, here is where there are partnership interests, here is where other governments or private sector is willing to play. That may require some investment locally as well. It's a combined partnership investment that may require some significant investment but it's not going to be only that, it has to be other people coming up to the plate. I think from a business community I don't have any problem with the partnership model because it's what business is all about, who gets what, who's going to put in what and I guess as private sector co-chair I see following the great work of Rod Bryden and Kirk Mandy. I'm a bit humbled by that, given those great leaders, but secondly I think you see where the water will flow. What TOP can do is say here is a need, which partners want to step up and try to address this need? We're going to focus on the tourism cluster and make Ottawa a stronger destination and marketed better externally. How are the partners going to come up to do that? It is that dialogue and that voice that I think TOP as a partnership platform really works.

OBJ: Is there room at the TOP table for new business voices?

HENDERSON: If someone says on the three priorities we've articulated we want to play, we can bring resources, hey come on in, let's talk. It is a partnership, if you want to move on that and come to the table, let's talk. It is an open door to come. If people have good ideas and want to make good contributions and partner with others, great, let's use it. If someone is keen, if someone wants to play, really be a leader, there is room for that

OBJ: Are there any future projects TOP is looking at pursuing?

CHIARELLI: In its infancy right now there is a strong commitment evolving through partners with the tourism industry that we need to conceive of and try to define a project, which would be a major tourism destination. A site or activity in the Ottawa area so that when people come here, particularly families (who) come here to visit the capital, they will have incentive to stay an extra one or two days. There are some high level ideas that have been thrown around but I think it is premature to talk about what they may be or how it may evolve but people have been talking about that shortfall in our tourism infrastructure for a long time. We hope that TOP can act as a catalyst and set up a process to try to identify what that might be and how it might be accomplished.

HENDERSON: I think some things may emerge of the technology commercialization focus. If we look at the telecom sector, how do we sell way more of good new telecom product? How do we sell ore to telecoms worldwide? I think the issue between universities and colleges, can we get more innovation bridges between them and the business sectors, so that a pipeline of innovation increases? I want to stress that these are things we may do, we're going to see where the water flows. Who wants to come, who wants to partner and that seems to be a pretty good model.

OBJ: What is TOP's overall goal?

HENDERSON: TOP's been around four years and if you project six years into the future and look back over a decade, what you will see and I'm absolutely sure of this given the success of the partnership so far, is you'll see that TOP's work as a partnership has put key economic foundations in place. The mayor has talked about broadband—that is a key economic foundation. It is also a quality of life issue. You'll see the Congress Centre expanded and operated. I think you'll see tourism being a whole other level of operation. I think we'll see life sciences go larger. I think we'll see more success on technology companies moving product to market. Those pillars are strategic because they are big, every one of them have huge multiplier impacts.

When you look back over a number of years, what endures, what really creates wealth and prosperity and the examples we've given I think will be looked at in a decade and people would say we were wise to have done this.

OBJ: Mr. Chiarelli, representing the City of Ottawa, what is your view of TOP?

CHIARELLI: I start with a basic principle, that the economic strategy of the city is best directed by the minds and the energy in the business community and so the City of Ottawa has a very specific and strategic policy to have a very small economic unit actually working in the city. On a comparative basis, the City of Toronto has 70 employees in its economic development department; we have six. I think that's a great accomplishment and a great testament to the city acknowledging leadership in the business community. What we've been able to do in Ottawa through TOP where we have all the players at the table, who impact on economic development, is we've been able to evolve a very high level of alignment and common purpose for each of the sectors of the economy. Each sector understands the priorities and the dynamics of the other, which gives them the opportunity to partner and support and not work at cross-purposes. In our 20/20 growth plan where we have an economic plan for the next 20 years, it was written by the business community, it wasn't written by planners in the City of Ottawa. The broadband policy we have, the rural economy plan we have, the basis on the economic generators that we have, that was all written, vetted, grafted and tested by the business community itself. We had our staff acting as a secretariat. So whatever economic development dynamic we have in the community is the business community's dynamic. To the extent that we have a budget for economic development for grants and supportive projects, TOP since three years ago actually makes recommendations to city council at budget time and for special projects. We have followed the recommendation of TOP in every instance.

TOP is very strategic, it is high-level policy, it tries to fill a need in the strategic area by conceiving of and creating the partnerships to do it.

I think TOP has evolved (into) a centre of excellence (that) is creating strategic partnerships. They are partnerships that are usually public/private which involve different levels of government, plus agencies such as OCRI or life sciences and in partnership with the private sector and the universities. It really is an expertise, which many communities would die for. And it really is a question of alignment, it's a question of co-operation and it's a question of effective implementation. I think it's very exceptional. When visitors come here from other jurisdictions and they learn about TOP and the type of partnerships we've been able to create, they are very impressed at what we've been able to accomplish by just getting the people around the table with an agreed to common economic purpose.