I guess I was naïve to think it might be possible to work within the framework of Charlottetown’s official plan to propose a downtown hotel development to fit all local stakeholders’ needs.

Our proposed project is in a heritage district involving major modifications to two existing heritage structures, so we sought professional advice on the architecture, consulted with local heritage advocates and met with the city’s heritage officer before releasing our plans.

Once all our property options were secured, before submitting our formal development application, the hotel scheme was announced to the public so citizens would have open disclosure on our planned project and could express their concerns.

With our “i’s” dotted and our “t’s” crossed, the formal application was submitted to the city and notices were mailed to 72 neighboring property owners inviting them to raise concerns about the development to the city. An “open house” was conducted for the public to review our plans so they could express concerns directly to us or forward them to the city. Plans were then sent for review to the city’s Heritage Board, a group of individuals with a proven heritage preservation commitment to the city.

After some changes, the development was unanimously approved and sent from the Heritage Board to the city’s Planning Board. That group of about 20 concerned citizens examined our plans in detail, listened to minor concerns from neighbours and reviewed various planning reports. Again, our plans were unanimously approved. The city’s professional planning staff compiled a report with a recommendation and presented it to City Council to vote on and plans again were unanimously approved.

I was just about to take the red VW microbus, the shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and head on toward the scene of the crime when two ladies called upon Officer Obie at IRAC, stopping us dead in our tracks with conjecture of vibrating houses and snow-packed streets. (Borrowed from Alice’s Restaurant)

These ladies appealed our permit with their frivolous claims and IRAC followed the process of scheduling a formal hearing 10 weeks out so they could have their right to “natural justice” — this despite the previous four stages of unanimously approved review.

Never mind any benefits this $25-million venture would bring to Charlottetown. Who cares about the developers’ timing obligations under various due diligence agreements related to the land assembly?

I’m tired of people trying to impede the development process with frivolous appeals. So, when these ladies requested a two-week postponement on the opening day of the hearings I decided enough was enough and had them served with a civil action. That didn’t sit very well with IRAC’s vice-chair Allan Rankin. In fact, in his closing remarks I thought Officer Obie was having me sent directly to the police officer’s station for my sanctimonious disregard for his dutifully appointed station in life.

IRAC has since denied the ladies’ appeal and it’s clear from their order the lack of understanding the commissioners have as to what an independent quasi-judicial tribunal should be able to do. Perhaps that’s because in PEI the full-time commissioners are political appointments with zero legal or planning credentials.

Simply put, the commission had the legal discretion to not hear this matter because of its frivolous nature. Instead they drew their attention to a man attempting to build something in his community. They had a prime opportunity to show leadership and they blew it.

“Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope under that garbage.” (Arlo Guthrie)

On PEI, you even have to get IRAC’s approval to open a simple gas bar, among other things. Don’t worry about free enterprise’s ability to measure the potential success of a gas bar.  We have the wisdom of IRAC racking up applicants’ fees for lawyers, accountants and consultants for the privilege of pumping some gas.

It’s time to review our regulatory system or, at the very least, see that the people appointed to run it are qualified and that would be “natural justice.”

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The other day I passed a bright new heavy duty dump truck hauling a new asphalt spreader on a new low deck equipment trailer. I turned to see who this impressive gear belonged to and saw the PEI government’s logo front and centre. I called up one of my road-building buddies to taunt him about the competition only to learn what I saw was only a sample of what’s in the province’s arsenal.

Seems I’ve been too busy competing against Crown agencies like the Charlottetown Area Development Corporation to notice our elected officials trying to become private enterprises – a mandate they weren’t elected to follow.

Our provincial government is into meat packing, apartment rentals, campgrounds and golf courses to name a few enterprises, all likely bleeding money without factoring in any capital return. I’m sure if we examined the origins of each of these endeavours, we might find a case for fiscal support from government among them. My instincts, however, suggest job creation from a patronage perspective was the prevailing factor above any long-term financial responsibility.

Look at Brudenell and Mill River golf resorts – each originally developed by government to foster Island tourism. Fair enough. But as golf became more popular, Crowbush Resort was added to reinforce PEI as Canada’s golf destination. Then Dundarave (at a cost in the excess of $10-million) somehow got added to what is now “Golf Links Prince Edward Island”, our very own public business enterprise, a decision that should’ve raised major red flags for taxpayers. Golf Links believes “their” courses are worth over $30-million. But they’re consistently losing $1.5-million a year without getting any capital return. In the real world a lender would have locked the gates long ago.

Their business solutions are not working and government courses are no longer leaders but competitors to more than 25 private operators they encouraged into the industry.

I’ve ventured into situations making investments that haven’t always worked out but was forced to face reality and cut my losses. With today’s ballooning public deficits, it’s time government considered doing the same.

In the 1990s, Joe Ghiz was faced with tough decisions regarding a broken Crown corporation, Georgetown Shipyards, losing 600,000 taxpayers’ dollars annually. The shipyard had 40 employees, no business and was run by a politically appointed board. Ghiz sold the entire business to the Irvings for one dollar.

Employees cried foul, townsfolk talked devastation, the opposition had a field day and Islanders questioned how government could give away millions in assets to the wealthy Irvings who “would likely move the entire operation to Saint John.”

Well the world didn’t end, Joe got re-elected and 18 years later the rebranded East Isle Shipyards employs 120, the Irvings have invested millions in capital improvements and Holland College operates a successful welding institute working closely with the shipyard. Joe’s brilliance turned that “buck” into a cool $30-million return that continues growing for Islanders. He was brave enough to give away a losing proposition knowing the entrepreneurial Irvings would stop the bleeding.

There is a serious lesson to be learned here.

Joe’s son Robert is now Premier and many think his tackling of health care and education will be his demise. But my money is on this young gun to come through with the tough creative changes we need our government focused on and I’m sure he’ll be re-elected. I’m hoping he’ll soon tackle issues he campaigned on, like our money-losing golf courses, to prove that tough decisions aren’t necessarily the end of the world as the media likes to play it. I like hearing the Premier talk about “short term pain for long term gain”, particularly if he can pass this message on to bureaucrats, local governments and fellow premiers.

I’d like to see a provincial golf course blow out sale or possible lease opportunity. Governments should stick to their core duties: education and health. They should sell assets outside of this core, putting them into the hands of entrepreneurs who will run them well, then use the profits to reduce debt, and put an end to continual increases in taxes and other various fees. A government focused not on operating businesses but on increasing efficiency of core services would be fresh, welcome thinking.

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Last year my wife and I spent part of our annual “driving” getaway in an older inn near downtown Lake Placid, New York.

The attention to detail and professionalism we received from a couple of young employees at check-in was more than impressive. I even felt confident enough to just take the keys, without previewing the room as I always do, after the pleasant young clerk said, “If you’re not happy with your room just call down and we’ll make sure you are.”

It was evident that staff members had been well-trained to deliver optimal customer service to the inn’s guests.

I recently invited some out-of-province associates to meet over breakfast at a hotel near my office. When one of my guests ordered French toast, the nervous young server asked whether she wanted “white or whole wheat.” Surprised that French toast was available in whole wheat, my guest chose that. When the server returned with nothing but two slices of toasted store-bought whole wheat bread on a large plate it became painfully clear why our Atlantic tourism industry is weakening.

Formerly our best tourists, our American neighbors are getting a better bang for their buck staying at home, especially now that our dollars are on par. Tourism operators south of the border are investing in their young workers and training them to provide exceptional customer service.

I don’t know what tourism operators are doing in other parts of Atlantic Canada but in PEI a few are trying to convince the provincial government to adopt a two-tiered minimum wage strategy. Instead of respecting and working with our youth to strengthen our economy, they’re trying to peel back their wages.

We’re due for a change in attitude about ourselves, our youth, our place in the world, our capabilities and our expectations of government. It’s time to drop our parochial worldview and realize we’re part of the global economy, competing and trading with local and international players. That our local economic levers affect, and are affected by, a large variety of outside factors.

We need to believe in the capabilities of our core industries (agriculture, fisheries, manufacturing and tourism), but we also need to seek out new opportunities and develop a spirit of innovation. We need to respect our young workers and train them in service and delivery. That’s where our focus has to be to make our region successful again.

Let’s develop our young people into positive contributors to our community and encourage them to pursue their ambitions here in Atlantic Canada. I believe each of us has unlimited potential to improve our society. If we unlock the potential of our youth while simultaneously building sufficient economic activity and structure to grow our working population, our community will thrive.

The potential to build our society lies within the abilities, ambitions, resources and needs of our community and if there’s anything I’ve learned in business, it’s that anything is possible through ingenuity, hard work and cooperation.

Business leaders need to step up and mentor young entrepreneurs, providing opportunities for them within our companies, guiding them towards establishing innovative new businesses. By ushering young people into the business community we’ll strengthen our position in any economic climate.

Atlantic Canada is a great place to live and visit, offering a quality of life unparalleled in the rest of the world. Our environment, our scenery, our heritage and our people all contribute to a wonderful community that I am proud to belong to. But we all must prepare for change. We can have a strong economy with many rewarding jobs and vibrant businesses. We can have progress and prosperity now and in the future if we strive vigorously to get it. Why not start by training our young people to better serve visitors to the region instead of pulling back their wages?

At breakfast one morning at the inn in Lake Placid, I asked for a local newspaper. The employee apologized for not having one but within the hour she tracked me down and gave me a copy someone presumably had fetched in town. A sign on an employee service door at the rear of the property said, “Through These Doors Pass The Most Exceptional Employees in the Adirondacks. Winners of a 4 diamond AAA Award for every year from 1985 to 2009.”

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Something Donnie Allan once told me about choosing a car popped in my head today as I made my way through a stack of resumes. 

I was out on a cold call when I first met Donnie. I was sitting across from this quiet man, trying hard to sell him a metal building when he starting asking me more questions about the buildings than I had answers to.

Behind his desk, which wasn’t much more than a dusty machinist’s workstation, was a homemade model of a huge motor home. Its tri-axles for steering and numerous axles at the rear made it look like something right out of Cape Canaveral.

Happy to have found a way to change the topic, I asked what it was. He proceeded to explain that he had once seen something like it at NASA and thought it would make a great motor home. His face lit up like a child’s when he asked if I’d like to see the one he was building.

On my way home, I couldn’t help but consider the fact that even though his resume could have listed NASA under work experience, this mechanical genius was raised on a farm.  He didn’t have a formal education; his start in the manufacturing business came from welding go-karts as a means to get away from the farm.

Our family business was a two-bay “service station” involving more family members standing at the end of a gas pump hose than paid help. From as early as I can remember, up to the time of my Dad’s death when I was 16, I had been kidnapped by the world of work.

Today I could probably declare a lost youth and blame my circumstances on dropping out of school way too young. But looking back I don’t remember being all that unhappy. In fact, I’m certain most of what I know today was absorbed during that period from Dad’s continuous harping about customer service to Mom’s ability to find the positive in everything. It was there I discovered my passion for cars and the drive to find something better for myself than working on them for other people. My lucky break came from a customer in the contracting business who helped me get back to school and into an industry which ironically now allows me to play with those cars I’ve always loved so much.

Since that long-ago sales call, Donnie and I have become good friends who share an interest in automobiles. When discussing which cars to buy, Donnie will often say, “Sometimes it’s less about the horsepower and more about the torque.” I usually just nod in agreement.

Donnie’s theory is well-debated but I still don’t really get it, except from my experiences racing a car out of the turns, I know I’d rather have more torque than horsepower.

One of our engineers came to us when a “top of the class” student engineer we’d hired for the summer found a better paying position with the Federal government. Through either guilt or for her own entertainment, she found a replacement for us in a young, not-so-studious classmate who was working at a nightclub. Another student engineer who usually strolled in wearing gym pants, sometime around noon, found his way to us because of his drafting skills – not from his school record. Today both these guys are executives at the top of their game. They got to where they are with a strong work ethic and the ability to take charge.

I’ve also headhunted “top of the class” talent and though they are usually bright individuals that doesn’t ensure they’ll be the best. In fact, most have a great tendency to move on to something else. 

You may need more patience with younger employees but they’re more open to ideas. More experienced candidates know more but resist change. But it’s “work ethic” that stands out for me in the end. The good news for job-seekers is that you don’t always have to be the “top gun” to get the job. Work hard at finding the right job and the right job will find you. Life comes at you funny sometimes.

Summerside

I grew up in the small Town of Summerside and there was a very fine gentlemen there in the name of Wally MacGillivray an accountant who was the Treasurer of M. F. Schurman Company Limited, one of the Town’s oldest and largest employers.  It was said that Harold Schurman back in the late sixties had parachuted young Wally into Town from away to help “reorganize” the Company and introduce computers into the business and he did that and a hell of a lot more for our Community. 

Wally and Joan and their young family were very involved in our community and there were very few events or causes that you wouldn’t find one of them working hard for.  Back then our Island legislature had 16 districts which were represented by a Councillor (protestant) and an Assemblyman (catholic) and our Town had the good fortune of being represented by the Premier of the day, Alex Campbell, and his catholic running mate T. Earle Hickey – an accountant who was the Minister of Finance.  In 1978 Premier Campbell was heading into his fourth term but his Government was getting a little long in the tooth according to the Opposition. Hickey stepped down prior to the election call so who better to fill his shoes than “Wally” who was well entrenched in the local liberal party.  Campbell’s Government won a squeaker 17 to 15 but unfortunately Wally’s “timing” wasn’t the best. He was beaten by George McMahon, a lawyer who in the previous election had showed well against Hickey, and no “new” liberals like Wally were elected.  Premier Alex Campbell stepped down later that year and liberal Bennett Campbell (no relation) took over. Against the advice of many liberals he went to the polls in 1979 and got hammered 21 to 11, but Wally was smart enough and busy back at work to know the tide had already turned in favour of the Tories so he didn’t put his name forward.   

A couple of years later Wally was getting a little itchy to get back into politics as he really wanted to do something to help his Community. He decided to take a run at local municipal politics hoping that that it may prove to the locals that he was capable and sincere and the experience would hold him in good stead if and when the Provincial Tory tide was about to change.  Wally won a land slide municipal election in Summerside as a Town Councillor and was quickly appointed Finance Chair and set out to put in place some fiscal responsibility on behalf of the Town.  He went on to do a brilliant job but during his term he quickly recognized that unlike private enterprise, where common sense mostly prevails, he found himself fighting a battle of small mindedness and nepotism which always seemed to be forefront in the media. 

A number of years later, when it was the deadline to file municipal papers for re-election, a young journalist from the Journal Pioneer, who was shocked that Wally hadn’t filed, called him to ask why and I think I can still remember a bit of his response,  “I think I’ve done my name enough damage for now”… being what he perceived was the result of being dragged down to the pettiness of municipal politics.   I know I and many others were quite disappointed that the Town had lost such a great public talent so in frustration I queried one of my friends just what the problem was and he said the answer to my question was on the sign leading into Summerside that should have said “the world’s greatest collection of small minded thinkers”.  I’ve always found my friend’s cynicism quite funny, with a hint of truth, but after many years of now living in Charlottetown and recently watching Charlottetown Councillor’s Devine and Tweel at their best fighting a church congregation over changes to some doors http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=318617&sc=98 ….  I now realize that my friend’s imaginary sign could easily be erected as a lighted billboard on the way into Charlottetown.  Some would argue that this may be the case in a lot of Communities in this Region or in our Country but as a frequent traveler and developer in most, it’s not always been my experience, as there are some really good people representing us out there who are being dragged down like Wally was.  It’s unfortunate that our most talented don’t always pursue or succeed at our public offices but I think it’s up to all of us to encourage and support good people if we want good representation.  We can also do this by getting out and voting as our municipal voter turnout is abysmal at the best of times.  So maybe it’s time to be looking around in your community and encourage good practical people to come forward by offering your support.   As it’s my guess that the debt loads our Communities are building up, through the infrastructure program, are going to demand good representatives like Wally in the future, otherwise we’ll pay the penalty at tax time…. here’s a little local play I did on my blog about the City of Charlottetown and the church…. http://www.timbanks.ca/2010/01/pin-holes-in-doors-says-devine.html

For my next post I’m thinking of organizing a Regional league of the “Don’t Get Ahead Gang” so if you have some local stories of silliness happening in your municipal government then don’t be afraid to share them with me as I’d be only too happy to “serve” them up… but I’ve have to go now as I have “Fish to Fry”.

“Why is Atlantic Lottery building casinos and restaurants when they’re supposed to be in the gaming business?” and I couldn’t help wondering that when they recently opened another new “casino/restaurant” in Summerside, PEI, which is paramount to putting lifeguards on the beaches in Cavendish during February.  Don’t get me wrong as I’m not against Atlantic Lottery investing into the harness racing industry by putting up bigger purses and getting fees for managing the pari-mutuels and where some money goes back into the harness racing industry but putting two bucks into a slot machine doesn’t put much back into the pockets of the people working in the industry… I guess when I think about this whole situation of gaming in the first place I think about our various Liquor Commissions and how the licensing of liquor is controlled by Government operated by Crown agencies and is far better than “bootlegging” or whatever other schemes would have transpired had we not as a society set up some regulations and systems to control it… that being said many years have passed and the Liquor Commissions have done a great job of managing the control and distribution of liquor but you don’t see “them” investing in restaurants, in bars, in casinos or the manufacturing of any form of spirits yet they can boast they make a lot of money that comes back to our Governments to be used on social programs… so why can’t Atlantic Lottery do the same and “stick to their knitting” of “gaming” and let private operators take the risks of investing and operating whatever other support systems the ALC need to keep their players happy… the answer could be either, “out of control Governments”, who are directing their hand appointed Board members to funnel more patronage producing enterprises into their constituencies, whether they make sense or not, or it’s the Corporate leadership at the top that is out of control… and after watching the arrogance of Atlantic Lottery’s staff roll into Charlottetown this summer and “rip” the signage off the Charlottetown Driving Park after being branded as such for over a hundred years and then throw up a new name “The Red Shores Driving Park and Casino” www.redshores.ca just shows how out of touch and power hungry these people are…  I had the opportunity to meet ALC’s President Michelle Carinci once during a round of golf at Fox Harbour and she seemed more absorbed in defending the criticism she was taking from a Nova Scotia MLA about her high salary than talking about the positive things ALC could be doing… so my guess is it’s the Leadership out of control coupled with the ever changing Governments that allow Atlantic Lottery Corporation to branch out into something that’s not their business…

And, just the other day the horse farrier tried to put a new set of “shoes” on my filly Sea Carrie Win (after my Princess wife) and four broken ribs later and a concussion he’s learning like me that it’s not an easy job getting them to try on a new pair of shoes, especially if they don’t like it….  here’s another post I did back in the summer on Atlantic Lottery http://www.timbanks.ca/2009/07/seeing-red-silly-change.html

The first such event was when some staff members approached me with concerns about a “crazy” who was publishing libellous opinions about me. They felt we should sue.  But I reminded them of the adage that it’s tough to get blood from a stone and these comments were nothing that would keep me awake at night.  The second incident, however, was a different story. A new customer told me that, prior to engaging us for work he had “Googled” us and what he found was not very flattering. In fact, he nearly didn’t hire us. Now, when something starts to stand between my company and my employees getting work, then you better believe I’m going to take that issue seriously. After considering how to combat these negative postings, it became apparent that the only way to be successful in this wild new frontier was to fight fire with fire. As a friend pointed out, “if you are not telling the story of your company, someone else will”. Thus began my venture into the world of blogging.

Over the past 18 months, my blog has morphed into something very different than what I had intended. I’ve used it to build public awareness of issues that affect Prince Edward Island’s major municipalities, provincial government and politics. I’ve also used it to vent on a few pet peeves, such as selling our government owned business enterprises (e.g., golf courses) and IRAC – PEI’s regulatory review agency (or as I like to call it, our “kangaroo court”). The really interesting thing is that I’ve actually built a reasonably-sized following of people who routinely read my blog.  I particularly enjoy bumping into the many young people who follow me online. They never cease to amaze me with their keen interest, questions and commitment to Island issues.

And, I’m proud to say, I’ve made significant headway on my original goal. Nowadays, if you do a search for me or my company on Google, you’ll find balanced information about who we are and what we do (as opposed to when you’d find allegations that I had parked my car in an illegal space). At first, I knew next to nothing about social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Nor was I familiar with pod casting and RSS feeds. But I’ve learned that if you don’t try them, you’ll never understand what they are all about. Social media can work to your advantage as long as you are prepared to invest your time and develop a strategy that works for you and your business. If you’re interested in starting a blog to help your business, here are some of the lessons I learned along the way:

• Blogs help to humanize your organization, so don’t invent a personality you or your company can’t live up to.

• Make sure your blog has an instant feedback option so you can respond to a little problem before it becomes a bigger one.

• Share some of your knowledge base. As it gets passed around, your customer will soon find you.

• Only write about what you know (particularly if it’s knowledge-based) and only on topics that interest you.

• Make sure you have a live feed like Twitter to push out thought provoking posts that will continue to draw your customers in.

• Keep your blog simple with interesting thoughts and not full of company ads or web images.

• Write the blog yourself, but not about yourself, and keep it very active so people keep coming back for more information.

• Be open to criticism. If someone points out that you have made a mistake or unnecessarily offended them, then own up and correct it.

As you’ve probably noticed, another unexpected outcome of my blog activity is that Atlantic Business has invited me to “spew my thoughts” on a regional basis, both in their magazine and in their new on-line edition (ABMonline.ca). My goal in doing so is to share my experiences of growing a business in hopes that it may spark a similar fire in someone else’s efforts to move forward. Some of you will like it; others may not. Either way, I look forward to hearing from you. Let the dialogue begin!

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As CEO of APM, Tim Banks is well-known businessman and blogger in his PEI community. You can visit his blog at ABMonline.ca and timbanks.ca. Since 1980 APM has provided construction and design-build services that include construction management, engineering and general contracting. APM operates across Canada with offices in Charlottetown, Halifax, Toronto and Calgary, providing construction services to local, regional and national clients.