Lobbyist Registry

by Darrin DeRoches April 17 - 23, 2014

The Lobbyist Registry will go right up beside the ‘bus lanes’ as the biggest blunders of the year, and it is only April. For those who do not know what a Lobbyist Registry is, it is a “sign in sheet” for anyone who wants to do business with the city. Its intention is to create transparency and eliminate the opportunity for “back room deals”. The only thing it will create is more “red tape”. Have we not learned the lessons from our past, when no one wanted to do business in our city? The numerous complaints about the city moving at a snails pace to get things done. So let’s add another level of red tape and scare away potential business from our city.     The best example of doing it right was the deal to bring Canada Bread to our community and create jobs and new taxes. The councilors had no idea about the deal until they needed to know and vote. That is their job, to vote – not to make the deal but to vote on a deal. A politician is not a business man and should stick to being a politician. A businessman wants to open a business without politics. By creating this registry, it will only bring unwanted attention to proposed deals which may or may not come to fruition. The registry will become public information where politicians will try to use it as a “grandstand” and the media will use it as a honey pot to write about businesses that are coming to town. The thing is, neither the media nor a politician understands how business works. They do not want to be announced to the community or their competition until they are ready to open. Several new restaurants in downtown have been announced by the media and city but they still are not open until a year later. This brings negative buzz before they even open and everyone wonders what is going wrong with these locations and King William. The best thing is for you to do is a soft opening and let the buzz build, then have an announcement with the mayor cutting the ribbon and the media exposes it – not the other way around.     A registry will not help our city and its negatives will outweigh any possible positives of these so–called backroom deals. Do you really think they exist? Is there a line of people, with millions of dollars to invest, missing out on opportunities in the city? Hell no. Let the businessmen do business and stop adding more red tape to the process. Everyone can have an opinion on the matter but those who have created business in this city and deal with the process of doing business on a daily basis know that investors will move on to another city if they keep running into red tape. They do not want their competitors knowing what they are doing until it is time to open and compete. V     Darrin DeRoches is a local real estate and mortgage broker. He can be reached to answer questions, comments or stories about real estate experiences through this weekly column at sold@uniquerealty.ca.