Humboldt’s mayor is travelling to China in an effort to promote the city to investors.
While he’s there, Rob Muench will talk to an international investment company that does a lot of business in the agriculture sector, an environmental technology firm and the country’s largest tourism company.
Council voted to fund up to $5,000 for the journey at its Aug. 27 meeting.
“It’s an opportunity that has come to us and I think we’d be negligent in not taking advantage of it,” Coun. Owen Hopfner said.
The trip came about when Muench had a discussion with a business owner that has connections to China at the Lube Stop grand opening. The mayor told him he was interested in foreign investment from the council, starting a conversation that ended with the trip.
The only concern brought up by council was the Chamber of Commerce wasn’t involved, adding they need to be brought into the fold in the future.
Muench told council he believes the trip is worth the investment.
“The way I look at it is if you get one or two companies that are interested in coming here, that will pay for itself, especially if the goal is to develop some long-term relationships that maybe spur something a few years down the road.”
Term Extension
Council isn’t in favour of having its four-year term extended by another year.
The province is asking councils if they be willing to have their elections moved a year into the future. The next civic election is scheduled for Oct. 28, 2020, while the next provincial election is scheduled five days later on Nov. 2, so the province is trying to find a way to increase the gap between two elections.
Since both sets of elections run on four-year cycles, having civic and provincial elections close together will be something that will continue to happen if no change is made.
“We felt that we were elected on a four-year term,” Muench said. “There’s a whole lot more people involved in municipal elections than there are provincially, so we felt it was better to have the province look at adjusting their date for the election.”
The province’s chief electoral officer recommended back in April 2017 the province move their election to April 5, 2021 and then have the next election on the first Monday in November four years later.
Huron Carole
The city is going to try to make a visit by a national Christmas carol concert tour possible.
The Huron Carole, founded by signer and television actor Tom Jackson, travels across the nation to raise funds for local food banks and family service agencies. It usually stops in larger centres.
Once the city has determined what needs to be done to make the concert stop possible, they’ll look for partners and sponsors.
“I think that’s a feather in our cap for our community,” Muench said. “I think that’s a production that’s going to be enjoyed by a lot of people.”
