EEDC pressed to explain ‘precise’ value of its work

The head of the city’s economic development arm says he thinks his agency is making progress explaining its value to city council.

“We’re starting to understand each other,” said Derek Hudson, the CEO and president of Edmonton Economic Development, following his agency’s budget presentation to council on Thursday.

The EEDC is asking council to approve annual spending of roughly $20 million for the next four years, which would account for about 30 per cent of its budget. The rest of its money flows from other grants and its customers, and business-incubator tenants.

Hudson said the EEDC is a nonprofit, and so its success is evaluated through economic effect — a measure that isn’t always well understood.

“What we’re looking for is the difference that Edmonton Economic Development made to what’s already happening in the economy,” he said.

He said tourism is the easiest example of how its work can have returns: EEDC is the “salespeople” for large-scale events, and the agency can track the injection of cash into the local economy that comes in during an event through hotel stays and other spending by visitors. A number of different operations and initiatives fall under the EEDC’s umbrella, including Edmonton Tourism, Innovate Edmonton (which captures the research park, Startup Edmonton, and its TEC Edmonton partnership with the University of Alberta), and Enterprise Edmonton, as well as the Expo and Shaw Conference centres. EEDC took over operations of the Expo Centre in January, and Hudson said that the centre will turn a profit for 2018.

During the presentation, councillors pressed EEDC to nail down the value of its work. Ward 10 Coun. Michael Walters said that with tax

dollars being scarce, being able to demonstrate clear outcomes in the forms of new companies, jobs and investments is important.

“It needs to be specific and precise,” he said.

Walters said with the advent of Edmonton Global, a regional economic-development organization that spans municipalities throughout the region, EEDC will need to walk through a mandate review.

Questions about EEDC’s operations came to the fore this fall, following criticism lobbed by the local entrepreneur community.

At council’s most recent audit committee meeting, a motion passed asking EEDC to speak to the city auditor about having that office complete an audit on the agency. But the EEDC board would have to agree to let it happen, a decision that hasn’t been made yet.

“That is under consideration by our board,” Hudson said, adding that he and the board chair are planning to meet with the city auditor on Friday.

The city’s combined potential spending for the next four years for the operational and capital budgets is roughly $16 billion.

Council l is expected to continue its deliberation about all city spending for 2019-2022 well into December.