Victoria should reconsider where it banks if it pursues a policy of sustainable purchasing, say some city councillors.
“If we’re going to procure locally, let’s procure our financial services locally as well,” Coun. Lisa Helps said during a recent council debate.
The city currently banks with the Royal Bank of Canada, which was selected though a competitive process in 2011. No submissions were received from credit unions, said Katie Josephson, city spokeswoman. The city’s fees for banking are less than $3,000 a month, she said.
Helps said Victoria is falling behind jurisdictions such as Vancouver and the University of British Columbia on sustainable purchasing — described by Roy Brooke, the city’s director of sustainability, as a well-established field that considers best value and total costs, evaluating products based on price, life cycle, quality and sustainability.
Coun. Ben Isitt agreed with Helps, saying a city “based on strong local and regional enterprise” is much stronger than a city based on chain stores, trans-nationals and “McJobs.”
“Where the city chooses to put its capital is an important issue,” he said. “And I think investing that capital in local or at least regional entities has very positive social and economic impacts.”
But Coun. Shellie Gudgeon urged caution, saying the city needs a balance of local and big institutions.
“I think it’s important to acknowledge that the financial institutions — a lot of the larger ones in the city — are anchors for our city and they are very valuable to our downtown core,” Gudgeon said.
“I don’t want to send the wrong message to our large banks, which employ a tremendous amount of local people who live downtown and work downtown and spend their money downtown. They might be very concerned to hear we’re moving away from them.”
Isitt said local institutions also provide jobs. “I don’t think we would see jobs disappear,” he said.
“It’s a question of where is the interest and the fees from the city’s transactions — where do those profits flow? We see which direction profits flow from the credit unions. They flow back [to the city], to the pathways and the homelessness issues.”
Helps also said adopting a sustainable purchasing policy could help create jobs.
“I see this as a means to economic development, as a means of saving money for the city, as a means of generating revenue,” Helps said. “There are so many opportunities.”
To Coun. Geoff Young, the phrase “sustainable procurement” was somewhat amorphous — and could mean whatever one wanted it to.
“I think a number of arguments can be brought into the discussion of what is sustainable,” Young said.
“I think in the end you’re going to end up picking and choosing and we will get ourselves into a morass of constant discussion and uncertainty.”
Victoria councillors decided to consider sustainable procurement as a potential project when they next meet to set priorities.
