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New funding sources may pay off for municipality

Municipality's attempts to cash in on 'Whistler' name brand hastened by provincial downloading Whistler's local government is poised to reap the rewards of the an entrepreneurial approach to business.

Municipality's attempts to cash in on 'Whistler' name brand hastened by provincial downloading

Whistler's local government is poised to reap the rewards of the an entrepreneurial approach to business.

A number of initiatives, still to be finalized, could inject new cash flows into municipal coffers in the years to come.

Among those initiatives is a deal to buy a company as well as to outsource municipal expertise for consultative fees and take the Yodel partnership to a whole new level.

"(The entrepreneurial approach) is really about looking for opportunities that aren't just a money grab or a user-fee increase," said Deputy Administrator Bill Barratt.

"It's really about efficiencies, effectiveness and partnerships."

And he added if the municipality brings in more money that means there's more opportunities for community services to grow and get better.

Whistler is in a unique spot when it comes to entrepreneurial opportunities because companies recognize the "Whistler" name brand as a selling point that has a certain cachet.

While it's hard to quantify how much the brand could be worth in the future, there are early indications of its potential.

"I think we're getting to the point where we are becoming a mega-brand," said John Rae, manager of strategic alliances and marketing services with the RMOW.

"A mega-brand simply means that you are now well ingrained in the hearts and minds of your core target group. And what that means is you can begin to leverage (the brand)... to the point where you have permission to start to sell a broader range of goods and services."

Rae's position, which was created in the last year, is designed solely to find and pursue business opportunities for the municipality.

RMOW representatives could not comment on the potential acquisition of the company, a deal which is still in closed-door negotiations, other than to say it is an opportunity that is in the community's best interests for the local government to consider.

But other business opportunities are also on the horizon.

The new SmartPark parking metres, which were introduced this month, have opened the door for another moneymaking project.

These in-car metres allow people to buy time on a card instead of using the traditional outdoor parking metres. As such, you only pay for the time you park and nothing extra.

The metres are built in Israel and the municipality seriously looked into the opportunity to be a North American distributor of the parking systems throughout Western Canada and the United States.

But that deal fell through when the Israeli company insisted the municipality buy ten of thousands of the units and store them here.

"It was an exciting opportunity," said Barratt.

But it was also risky.

So instead they found another way to realize the potential of the parking metres. Rather than buy and sell units, the municipality is now exploring an opportunity to use its expertise, through Bylaw Supervisor Sandra Smith. Smith is held in great regard by the parking industry in North America and globally, said Rae.

As such the municipality could charge consulting fees to have Smith go to other communities and help identify and solve their parking challenges.

The deal is still being developed and has not yet been approved by council.

At the same time the municipality is looking at taking the Yodel wireless partnership to other communities.

In the summer the municipality announced a partnership deal with Yodel that created a wireless umbrella over the village, allowing people to be online in the resort's hotels. The idea behind the partnership was always to develop the model in Whistler and then export it elsewhere.

"The real revenue will be generated from the other resorts, many of which have already identified a genuine interest in us implementing exactly the same program with the Yodel brand in their communities," said Rae.

Currently there are a number of communities that have expressed their interest in the model.

With these and other sponsorship initiatives in the pipeline Rae said staff and council are developing formal entrepreneurial policies to take these opportunities to the next level.

"There shouldn't be incongruity," said Rae about any new business opportunities.

"In other words, there should be some easily articulated and easily understood connections between the companies and/or products with which we're working and our own superbrand."

Mayor Hugh O'Reilly said the municipality is almost required to take this approach in local government.

"There's just so much downloading going on that local governments are now really being forced to try and find new and creative ways to help finance what the communities need," he said.

"(We're) not only asking the province for new financial tools but we're trying to also find new revenue sources that can help support the community by using some of the assets that we have."

This entrepreneurial approach has been in place on some level at the municipality since Administrator Jim Godfrey began his tenure here seven years ago. Godfrey was instrumental in implementing the current budgeting system and the culture of finding efficiencies in the municipal departments.

It's a culture that forces you to look at your bottom line, said Barratt, and be more attentive to opportunities.

Those early opportunities included things like a small partnership with a cross-country ski rental shop on the Lost Lake Trails.

Within two years of this partnership the revenue on the municipality's cross-country trails had doubled, which was good news for the rental company and the municipality, which gets a percentage of the revenues.

Now this concept is set to get bigger and potentially more profitable.

"My instinct... is that it (Whistler) will be truly one of the world's great brands," said Rae.

"I believe it already but that will continue to strengthen over decades to come.

"That gives us just that much more permission to be innovative and explore new markets and potential sources of revenue."