NENSHI HEADING TO INDIA
Trade mission has risks, rewards
Noting he’ll be leading a trade team to a country wracked by ethnic violence, Mayor Naheed Nenshi said Thursday that his trip to India is increasingly vital to Calgary’s economic development.
Nenshi expressed concern over how the unrest could affect the seven-day tour of New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore and, as a Muslim, attacks on people of his faith.
“We’ve had some concerns about the political stability situation and you can imagine I am particularly attuned to the idea of anti-muslim riots,” said Nenshi.
“But it’s better to engage, to have conversations, maybe it’s good for folks to see a Muslim mayor in a western country to be able to talk about the pluralism we have here.”
The delegation, which departs for India on Friday, will also include University of Calgary vice-chancellor Dr. Ed Mccauley and Mount Royal University counterpart Dr. Tim Rahilly, who will cultivate links with educational institutions.
But Nenshi said the cornerstone of the journey — which will also touch on tourism and agriculture — will be to sell India’s massive film industry on the attractions of producing in southern Alberta.
“It’s really time for this to become a major film location for Bollywood films,” said Nenshi. “We could all use a little more Bollywood.”
Calgary’s skilled film crews, the diversity of its landscape, a sound stage and even the considerable size of its South Asian population — nearly one in 10 residents — make the city a natural fit for India’s film industry, said the mayor.
“I sort of half-jokingly but seriously pointed out … ‘if you’re looking for extras, people to sing and dance and be in background shots, it’s easy to do that in Calgary,’ ” said Nenshi.
But he said concerns remain over the level of the UCP government’s film industry tax credits.
The delegation is also hoping to drum up interest in Calgary’s burgeoning IT sector, said the mayor, especially considering city companies plan to spend $18.4 billion on digitization over the next two years.
“There are over 3,000 unfilled tech jobs in Calgary and we’ve got to build a pipeline to fill those jobs,” said Nenshi.
With dark economic clouds continuing to gather over Alberta, most recently highlighted by the cancellation of the Teck Frontier oilsands mine, tapping into India’s market of 1.4 billion people is increasingly essential, said Calgary Economic Development president Mary Moran.
“Our job is to look to the future, not just the next five years but 25 years,” said Moran.
“We’re going to come back with lots of great economic development opportunities.”
Trip organizers weighed the risk posed by the novel coronavirus and found it to be minimal, said Nenshi, adding there are more known cases of the illness in Canada than among the vastly larger Indian population.
Also part of the delegation will be Ward 5 Coun. George Chahal, who’s of Indian descent.
The trip’s cost to Calgary taxpayers is $90,000, while the two universities will cover their own tabs, said Nenshi.
The mayor joked that one issue vexing him is his lack of Indian garb that might be vital for at least one part of the trip.
“I don’t know what I’ll wear for the Bollywood gala, it’s a big problem for me,” said Nenshi.
We’ve had some concerns about the political stability situation … But it’s better to engage, to have conversations.