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Tourism consultant redundant

Why do we need an intermediary to allocate our funds?
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A tourism consultant hired by a city tourism committee doesn’t seem to be in the best interest of taxpayers, suggests letter writer. (The News Bulletin)

To the editor,

Re: Consultant builds model for tourism, July 6.

We cannot expect any one individual to be expert in every facet of a community’s economic growth, so yes, once we elect a city council who receive a generous stipend for their endeavours on our behalf, we could appreciate their need to opt for the appointment of a committee consisting of, we would expect, individuals with particular expertise and undoubtedly a vested interest in the field in question, to be able to determine and advise council of the most advantageous route to proceed. We now have a committee of 11, who either receive some method of remuneration or benefit through a vested tourism-related interest, contracting a separate consultant for a fee of $30,000 from the taxpayers coffers.

We as City of Nanaimo ‘cave dwellers’ should be asking specifically, who are these 11 expert committee members appointed by city council and what are their particular strengths and vested interests in Nanaimo’s tourism industry? If they are stakeholders then maybe they should foot the bill for the consultant.

Secondly, why do we need an intermediary to allocate our funds? When we have a supposed enlightened elected body, that could have directly contracted the consultant, if necessary?

Stew Horley, Nanaimo