Is it me or does anyone else think Campbell River deserves more from Rivercorp CEO Vic Goodman?
How about a lot more?
I try to remain positive about the potential a well-functioning economic development agency could do for this city…and then I sigh as Goodman’s latest e-mail hits the desk:
“WooHoo!!!”
Pardon me? Did I just read that?
No, not just me, but just about every media outlet on the B.C. coast read this too. And not just measly “ink-stained wretches,” as our company lawyer so eloquently describes reporters.
Nope. Goodman’s response to the one of the biggest economic announcements to ever come Campbell River’s way was also read by city, regional district, provincial and First Nations politicians, high-ranking civil servants from all levels of government, business leaders, and too many more to even count on the CC list.
The news, you will recall, is BC Hydro’s announcement that $940 million – that’s almost a billion, Vic – had been approved to facilitate a massive five-year project to replace the John Hart generating station.
Again, I give you the very first response from our city’s business and economic development ambassador:
“WooHoo!!!”
Call me a stickler, but I think it should have been two words and there’s never any point to using more than one exclamation mark.
Maybe it was just too late on that Friday afternoon when the announcement came in and Goodman, still drowsy from lunch, just hit the “reply all” key by accident. I doubt it, and it pains me even further to think that if it were an accident, we have Rivercorp CEO who struggles with the basics of simple e-mail.
To be fair, I know Vic is excited about new economic development, but why does he have to come off sounding like a 16-year-old who just scored his personal best on a video game? The English language does offer enough words to express excitement in a more formal manner.
So, giving Vic the benefit of the doubt, I visited the Rivercorp website to see if he cared to elaborate.
Sigh.
The “latest news” is dated May 2012 and tells us the tourist season has begun. I do note on the website that Rivercorp has an impressive 2012 tourism guide…produced in Nanaimo, I should add.
Not much there, so I thought back to Goodman’s 2012 plan to hit the city up for $800,000 to hire more Rivercorp employees to do who-knows-what in an office that already employs seven people.
The city, faced with a $3.5-million shortfall, tossed Goodman’s plans in the recycling bin.
Now, a year later, we get “WooHoo,” which isn’t much from a guy earning $107,000 a year.
