Markham OK's costs for additional councillor on India trade mission

YorkRegion.com
Jan. 27, 2016
Amanda Persico  

On the eve of a trade mission to India, Markham councilors found themselves debating the value of the trips and the costs.

Mayor Frank Scarpitti, Councillor Alex Chiu and two economic development city staffers were initially set to travel to India for a 10-day mission organized in collaboration with Markham businesses and educational institutions.

Approved last fall, the mission will include visits to New Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Kolkata (formerly Calcutta).

The trip was organized in collaboration with local businesses and schools including LEA Consultants, NOVO Plastics, Seneca College, York University and Quanser.

Regional councillors Joe Li and Nirmala Armstrong later joined the trade mission, but are contributing to their costs out of pocket.

This week, council approved local councillor Amanda Collucci’s last minute addition to the trade mission.

With five of 13 council members away in India, several upcoming council and committee meetings are cancelled. 

With the addition of an extra council member, Scarpitti requested a bump in the initial $47,600 budget.   

In a recorded vote, council voted 9-3 in favour of adding $8,900 to the trip’s budget. Local councillors Valerie Burke, Don Hamilton and Karen Rea voted against.

Both Hamilton and Rea argued costs for additional councillors should not be passed on to the taxpayer.

“I don’t support trade missions,” Rea said. “Never have and nothing has changed.”

Councillor Alan Ho countered that those who oppose trade missions “talk from ignorance”. Ho participated in the city’s trade mission to China in the fall and in 2012.

There is a saying, Ho said, frogs from the bottom of the well only see a sky as big as the well opening.

“The frogs don’t see how big the sky actually is,” he said.

Councillor Armstrong also defended the importance of trade missions. She decided to join the city’s China trade mission last fall and paid her own way.

“I sat here and said, ‘Why can’t we do this through Skype,’” she said. “Phone or Skype doesn’t work. The face-to-face part is so important.”

She also noted, going on a trade mission is not a vacation. The itinerary is packed with meetings.

“It’s not like I like to travel there for a holiday,” agreed Li, who was born in India.

“If I don’t feel like I can contribute, I don’t want to go.”

Going on a trade mission is something each councillor should experience at some point, Armstrong argued.

Hamilton also questioned why the request for an additional member on the trade mission was coming at the 11th hour instead of being part of the initial discussion last fall.

The province is hosting a business trade mission to India during the same time.

Markham will participate in the sustainable technologies summit in New Delhi.

The 17-member business delegation will focus on four industry sectors: infrastructure, engineering and transportation; information and technology; life sciences and health care; and education.

During the last India trade mission in 2013 with the Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce and the Indian Institutes of Technology, the city’s delegation participated in more than 20 business meetings and made more than 600 business contacts.

In 2012, the city’s delegates participated in more than 25 business meetings and made more than 500 business contacts.