Some members speak in favour of BIA

By Chris Jones/The Oshawa Express

With the Downtown Oshawa Business Improvement Area (BIA) on the potential chopping block, some businesses have spoken up in support of the organization.

The BIA is currently under fire as city council is looking to the organization’s members to determine if it should be dissolved. Councillor Derek Giberson is one person who believes it shouldn’t.

Giberson tells The Oshawa Express he was hearing from BIA members during the recent special council meeting when the motion to dissolve the BIA was brought forward.

“The language was very strong. The opposition to dissolving the BIA included language like, ‘livid,’ and ‘how could we possibly make a decision without consulting those who are affected?’” says Giberson.

He says they’ve been hearing from BIA members ever since, and have received numerous emails since the council meeting last week.

“I think it is a very clear indication that council has to be exceedingly cautious about making the decision on the basis of hearing from only a couple of members in an association that has literally hundreds of members,” he says.

He hopes with the future survey from the city, they will hear from those they didn’t initially include in the process of a decision, which will provide a clearer picture of what should be done.

“Maybe we’ll be able to reflect on whether a decision almost happened in extreme haste without the proper information and due diligence,” he says.

Ultimately, based on the response he’s seen so far, Giberson believes BIA members will vote in favour of keeping the organization around.

“What we’ve seen so far is overwhelming support of maintaining the BIA,” he says.

Owner of Brew Wizards and the Rook Kyle Kornic tells The Express he is in full support of the BIA, and thinks it’s unacceptable that city council is even debating dissolving the BIA.

“I am a supporter of the BIA. I think that we can do some really great things with a properly funded BIA and proper staffing,” says Kornic.

He explains if the majority of members vote in favour of dissolving the BIA, he will accept that, but the way council has gone about the issue has left him concerned.

“The fact that they’re trying to sneak it through council without consulting the membership is super unacceptable in my opinion,” he says. “We can’t just dissolve something over the whim of a couple of councillors without consulting the membership at large.”

He notes having the BIA around post-COVID-19 will be very important.

“It’s going to be very important for the BIA to be around to help attract businesses, and even just help support us with promotions, and marketing,” he says.

Kornic adds he also has friends who opened businesses downtown because of the BIA.

John Daniel owns Etresoft Incorporated, a small software company he says he could operate from home, but chooses to work downtown.

“I live close to downtown, and I walk to work everyday. So, it bothers me when I see all these posts on social media which are trashing downtown Oshawa,” he says. “All the bad things people say about it, I don’t see. I’m downtown every day and I’m not seeing that stuff.”

He believes the BIA is one of the few groups which is vocally promoting downtown Oshawa.

“I don’t think you should get rid of one of the few groups that we have that is saying good things about downtown Oshawa,” says Daniel.

Isaac Musial, who sits on the BIA board and represents his company Compass Wealth Partners, doesn’t believe dissolving the BIA will go well for the city.

“I think it could be absolutely devastating,” he says.

He says under the current motion, if the BIA were dissolved, the city would take over the responsibilities of the BIA.

“The BIA essentially is the voice and has a really good pulse on the needs of downtown Oshawa, and I’m not convinced at all that the city can all of a sudden do a better job of representing downtown Oshawa,” says Musial.

Eric Dornan, the co-founder of All or Nothing Brewery and associate member of the BIA, tells The Express he doesn’t approve of a possible dissolution of the BIA.

“I think the city has a lot of things to improve on,” says Dornan.

As an associate member, Dornan says he doesn’t get all of the information regular BIA members would because he is outside of the boundaries of downtown Oshawa, but he is disappointed in the idea that the BIA could be dissolved.

Currently city staff is putting together a report which will dictate how the city will survey BIA members on their opinion regarding the status of the organization.

Pending council approval, the survey will be released soon.