Continuing with the recommendations from the Mayor's Task Force and subsequent Strategic Action Plan, a new committee will be formed to address economic development in the Pass.

Mayor Bruce Decoux said council needs to recruit an Economic Development Officer and form a committee to begin moving towards other issues of their mandate.

At the meeting on May 15, Mayor Decoux said council has accomplished and identified a number of things in the Strategic Action Plan, "but we need to start taking a step forward relative to one other area which we've not specifically addressed."

"We've addressed it in a piecemeal fashion on purpose because we had to do some housekeeping and foundation building tasks before we could move forward with certain aspects of the sustainability plan, particularly economic sustainability," said Mayor Decoux.

He asked council to start thinking about the formation of a Community Economic Development Advisory Committee and added that he would like to see the committee up and running this September. This would allow them to then look at contracting or hiring an Economic Development Officer to be in place by early 2013, he said.

"...You have to have certain things in place before we can hire that individual and we're now at the point," said Mayor Decoux.

The Mayor's Task Force report developed a year ago and the Strategic Action Plan presented last fall, recommended that one member of the committee be from council and the other members be chosen "based on merit and diversity, resulting in a committee that is representative of the community, including youth and seniors".

Ideally, the committee should be seven to nine people, Mayor Decoux added.

It also recommended that council select members of the committee through a request for expression of interest and submission of qualifications.

Mayor Decoux explained that there are a number of ways committee members could be recruited, such as appointment by council, or by advertising, and council will look at these options.

The mandate of the committee, outlined in the Strategic Action Plan is to advise council and "participate actively in oversight, planning and delivery of economic development results".