The Town of Lake Cowichan wants to promote all aspects of the Cowichan Lake area in a promotional video, if it was to come about.
The video will not happen this year, but if it does, council and town staff want it to include the Cowichan Lake Education Centre, Lakeview Park and many other amenities closeby.
“Any marketing we do should be about about the whole town,” said Mayor Ross Forrest at last Tuesday’s CLEC, Lakeview and Fire Department Committee meeting at the town hall. “No dollars are budgeted this year for that but if we come up with some savings, I do support that.”
CLEC manager Dalton Smith is all for the prospect of a promotional video.
“The branding for the education centre is a problem,” said Smith. “We know that and we can’t fix it without a bunch of money.”
Like Forrest, Coun. Bob Day, who chaired the meeting, wants to see a full-on branding exercise of the area to attract more businesses and residents to the area, as well as a website upgrade for the Town of Lake Cowichan.
“We need to come up with a plan that says ‘Come to Cowichan Lake for lunch and stay for a lifetime,” said Day at the meeting. “I’m thinking more than just CLEC. We might be looking at a $20,000 to $30,000 budget item next year for this.”
Chief administrative officer Joe Fernandez agreed with Day.
“It should be more than just CLEC. That wouldn’t be worthwhile and it’s not as attractive,” said Fernandez. “I know it would be a good thing, but my concern is we spend all this money and there’s no return. I’d like to see the video split up into components: Lakeview, CLEC and business.”
Coun. Jayne Ingram is on the same page as Day and Fernandez.
“We need to promote business, the chamber, why wouldn’t we promote the whole community? It’s not just about one entity,” she said.
Regardless, Smith wants council to crack on with this item as soon as possible.
“If we wait for three more years, we might miss our window of opportunity,” he said.
Forrest sees incoming expert opinion as key going forward.
”We’ve all got great ideas, but none of us have marketing expertise,” said the mayor. “We have to utilize the marketing company’s expertise whatever avenue we go down.”
Smith sees now as a perfect time for the video.
“The town is getting nice,” he said. “We’ve done the first part, we’ve prepared the area. It’s time to move forward now. Five or 10 years ago it was harder to do it. Let me come up with some more ideas.”
The conversation was ended with Fernandez saying the town would need to make sure the funding is in place.
“I’ve love to know what it would cost to do the whole thing,” said Day.