Reflections from my third month as Interim CEO

Technically my third month as Interim CEO concluded on June 15th, but I decided to wait a few days for our Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday so I could reference some of the announcements from some recent work.?

But first, why do I keep writing these? I thought I’d only do one and keep the rest for my private journal, but then people told me that they really liked the candid updates (not necessarily the F-Bomb in the last one, but hey, I like to be authentic and the reality is that I do happen to swear on occasion in real life. Plus, according to Psychologists, people who swear are more trustworthy ;-) Trust me on that. (or read about it Forbes here).?

So here we go. Updates from the month three from scrappy Ec Dev world here in Greater Victoria, BC:?

Speaking of AGM.?

We've finally published our one pagers on our strategic pillars that I mentioned in my last update post (if you missed it: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/reflections-month-two-interim-ceo-dallas-gislason-onlmf/)! I mentioned in previous posts about how difficult this was because we had to cut cut cut and keep only the bare essential information. This took way more energy than I thought, but lucky Kerry Slavens is an expert editor and truly brought these materials to life. Thank-you Kerry!

Eight years in, SIPP enters a new era (departing CEO, new CEO coming in, political changes in upcoming elections and significant turnover in the last municipal election, etc). So we’ve positioned this report to reflect the “Journey" - from early foundational work, and context for how & why SIPP was created, the early work of establishing the “collaborative fabric” or “connective tissue” that makes the SIPP model work, to later building out our four strategic pillars over time - with most acceleration occurring post-pandemic. Anyways, check out the digital version (here) or if you’re one of our key stakeholders, you’ll likely get a print version in the mail. This exercise was difficult, so I really hope it lands well! Thank-you also to Taylor Sato, our talented designer for brainstorming and iterating something like 34 versions of these over many weeks.?

Special shout out to Kear Porttris , who wrapped up his term on our board. Thank-you Kear for all the valuable contributions you’ve made over the last few years (and for staying on as advisor to the Indigenous Prosperity Centre). Also thank-you to Frank Bourree , who has served as our Chair for several years now, including through the tumultuous pandemic period! Frank is passing the torch (new chair will be announced after the first board meeting following AGM).

And also thanks to the new directors who members endorsed on Tuesday. You’re in for a world of fun & also tough challenges! (full slate will be announced soon in a formal release with bios etc). Special thanks to Terry Gunning who chaired the board recruitment efforts (and who's also been one of the main people behind the SIPP CEO search! Tons of work! We appreciate it!)

Oh, and special shout out to Kieran Buggy who project managed the entire AGM planning process, including all of the board recruitment activities as well!

SIPP By-the-#'s (from the report):?

SIPP operates on $1.64/capita of municipal investment (this compares to $9.42/capita on average across Canada's metropolitan areas) and leverages non-municipal funding for a total of $2.45/capita operating budget (compared to $13.29/capita on average across Canada’s metros). SIPP then leverages this again for $s that go into projects. Over our eight year history, we've averaged $1.63 of project $s raised for every $1.00 of municipal investment (some years it’s much higher and others much lower, but this reflects that average spread across all eight years of our existence). This, in turn, helps create the $93.20/capita of impact annually - or a 50 to 1 ratio on municipal $’s invested (and 38 to 1 on total annual operating budget).

Shortcuts?

(hint: read from the top to the bottom if you want to see where it’s going first, or read from the bottom to the top if you want the full experience of the journey with background context):?

• SIPP Impact Journey (across the org): here.
• Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies (COAST): here.
• Indigenous Prosperity Centre: here.
• Rising Economy Pillar: here.
• Victoria Rising - regional promotion initiative: here.

Caveat: These four pillars have to be considered as interdependent and interconnected. They don’t work in isolation of each other (for example, we do Indigenous work across all four, and we do ocean/marine work across all four)

Celebratory high five:?

We finally were able to announce the upcoming COAST co-working facilities for ocean technology companies, entrepreneurs, and professionals (we’ll see you soon on Herald Street at the edge of Rock Bay and the soon to be announced Industry, Arts & Innovation District!).?

Part of the underlying thesis for COAST is that it will serve as a platform to attract entrepreneurs and investment to the region, in sectors that have positive externalities (like innovation that reduces GHG emissions). Well, this is already coming to fruition as several companies have reached out about facilities and upcoming plans. One as far away as Florida. Hopefully many updates to come as these materialize.?

Another celebratory high five!?

We finally launched the new SIPP website to members at the AGM. This offers a fresh look for SIPP's new era. We'd love if you had a look! Thank-you to Kerry for carrying this 100% on her shoulders over several weeks (especially as we pivoted to other priorities along the way!): check it out and tell us what you think: www.southislandprosperity.ca?

Local Leadership Forum:?

We released the summary report a few weeks back on this process that we co-produced alongside local municipal officials; but some progress already made as we worked with the Victoria and the South Island Divisions of Family Practice to co-host a Stakeholder Roundtable on Attracting and Retaining Family Doctors. More on this to come as part of the www.victoriarising.ca initiative too!?

Okay a third celebratory high five!?

We finally announced our multi-year Indigenous Procurement project in partnership with Public Service Procurement Canada (PSPC) with funds from Indigenous Services Canada ($322K over two years with option to extend). The goal is to help close the gap between the Federal goal of working with Indigenous suppliers and the gap in actual Indigenous business that have the capacity/scale to bid on some of this large work. Government procurement is tricky business and we want to make sure it can get easier and more effective; and once so, this could be expanded to include provincial, institutional and large corporate procurement as well.

Speaking of Indigenous??

Christina Clarke and SIPP’s Indigenous Prosperity Centre (IPC) reported out on their work over the last year. Of note, I’d love for you to check out this Marine Stewardship booklet that our IPC Comms lead Tarrin Sam produced. The purpose is to amplify the work that First Nations do not just for ocean ecology but also ensuring that the importance of the water remains integral to the Nations’ cultural and economic future as well.?

Christina also alluded to some upcoming project work: Blue Economy Day Camp, an Indigenous Tourism Workshop, and a Regional Youth Conference. Please sign up for the IPC newsletter to stay up to speed on this important work: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/SL4jqt1/ipc??

If you glossed over the last three bullet points on our Indigenous work, you’re not alone - I’ve noticed that when we post about this stuff it gets less “likes” and less “views” than our other work. This may mean that you just aren’t fully aware of why this type of mandate is essential for ALL Canadians. You may be interested in learning more from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report. You can find it here (even read the first few pages if you’re short on time). I'm not saying this to pass judgement on you. We understand that this is a journey and we want you to join this journey willingly.

Municipal Growth Framework + Efficient/Effective Problem-Solving

I recently published an OpEd in the Times Colonist that endorsed the new Municipal Growth Framework that was developed and released by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) last week. In the OpEd I explain that municipalities need more and better flexibility in their toolbox in order to solve the 21st Century challenges faced by our cities. In Canada, 29M of our 39M population live in just 36 metropolitan areas (that’s two out of every three people). Do those 36 places (including Greater Victoria, the 16th largest of these) have the tools to build the future we all want? I argue that we don’t and need more. I also assert that SIPP as a collaborative model is one such tool as it allows partnerships to emerge (efficiency) and leverage of $$s (effectiveness). Read it here if you missed it.

Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies (COAST)

Lots to update, but the facility was the big one this month! More to come on COAST activities over the summer, including the launch of our Blue Pathways Initiative! Stay tuned.?

One more thing for COAST: hiring for two positions, one for the facility (we’ll need some Operational help!) and one for our partnership with the Ocean Startup Project (OSP) a pan-national initiative based in Atlantic Canada with a goal to promote entrepreneurship in the Blue Economy, as well as support early stage ventures. We’ll announce these shortly!

CEO recruitment.?

I had the pleasure of meeting with some of the search committee's shortlisted candidates .... Though I’m told that their search is still continuing for the time being. Finding the right person for this job is tough. (I’ll take that as a compliment I guess..unless I really screw it up soon)

Challenges.?

Anyone out there who's ran non-profit orgs or public-facing orgs knows the pains of the annual audit. This year's process was kind terrible for me for two reasons: 1) our financial complexity increased substantially in 2023 with the major funding announcements exceeding $5M (for context, that's 6X our annual operating budget); and 2) since I wasn’t the CEO for the reporting period, I didn’t have all the answers off-the-top-of-my-head. Anyways, it all worked out and we ended up with a clean audit report via KPMG. Thanks especially to our Finance, Audit and Risk Management (FARM) committee for their diligent work, and our accounting team led by Avinash Jagwani !

Lots of other stuff keeping me awake at night too, but I’ll save those for another post.?

Thanks for reading this far!