Submitted by CVEDS
Comox Valley Economic Recovery Task Force (ERTF) met virtually with members of its new Technical Advisory Sub-Committee (TAC) recently, to welcome and update them around the process of creating strategies to help the Comox Valley business community and sectors recover and adapt, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than 40 industry leaders, business and sector association members, elected officials and senior local government staff participated on the call. Chief Councillor Nicole Rempel, K’ómoks First Nation, and Mayor Bob Wells, City of Courtenay are co-chairing the Comox Valley Economic Recovery Task Force, established by the Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD).
The ERTF is a collaborative initiative representing the CVRD, City of Courtenay, Town of Comox, Village of Cumberland, K’ómoks First Nation, and CFB 19 Wing Comox, which will oversee the Technical Advisory Sub-Committee (TAC).
The role of the TAC is to create strategies to help the Comox Valley business community recovery and adapt during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, through the creation of Business Case Action Plans that capture and recommend immediate and post shut down actions. These Business Case Action Plans will be provided to the ERTF for consideration.
“I am pleased to be a co-chair on the ERTF, that brings together all Comox Valley governments and important political members, coupled with a wide spectrum of small businesses and industry sectors, to collaborate on this critical task,” said Rempel.
“The members of TAC have a critical job of enabling a broad-based process to gain meaningful input on measures to be considered to assist in economic recovery. We are very thankful they’ve stepped up to participate,” said Wells. “The efforts of the ERTF will then be focused on the potential actions that have the greatest consensus, will have the most meaningful impact, and are viewed to be realistically achievable from a local government perspective.”
Administrative support for the process is being provided by Comox Valley Economic Development and Tourism (CVEDS), on behalf of the CVRD. The ERTF appointed CVEDS board chair, Deana Simkin as the TAC chair. “We are pleased to see this excellent initiative moving forward and applaud the CVRD, and all the participating businesses, organizations and local governments for contributing their effort and time to support the important recovery of the local economy,” said Simkin.
The members of the TAC are derived from the TAC Terms of Reference, approved by the ERTF, and is intended to be as broad based and as nimble as possible. Business or industry groups that may be interested in participating in the Recovery Task Force process can submit an expression of interest to TAC@investcomoxvalley.com, which will be reviewed and considered by the TAC Chair.