Mayor Nenshi spoke to business leaders at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, saying the downturn is a good opportunity to build new markets and new opportunities.

While news of oil prices heading upwards is good, Nenshi told the gathering, we should not ignore the chance given by the downtown to open new ways of keeping the economy going.

“We also need to take opportunity to recreate and recraft who we are to make sure we are getting off this rollercoaster as best we can.”

Over twenty years ago, 50 percent of Calgary’s economy was based on oil and gas, Nenshi said, but there have been efforts to change that, even before the downturn.

“Before the downturn, it was down to 30 percent of Calgary’s GDP. We have been diversifying without anyone even knowing about it.”

Nevertheless, Nenshi says that the oil and gas sector needs to stay healthy while the city continues to diversify.

One way to do that, he said, was to have the approval of pipelines to take Alberta crude to coastal ports.

“I was very, very, very happy to see the federal government approve Trans Mountain and the reversal on Line 3 last week. This is an extraordinary move and it will make a big difference. It’s something that a lot of us in this room, me included, have been working very, very, very hard on.”

Nenshi said there is much more that needs to be done.

He says that the city can take advantage of four major ways to help in the downturn.

The first is a continuation to ‘sell’ Calgary on the global market.

"I have been traveling a heck of a lot lately, selling Calgary to people outside of Calgary. My friends at Calgary Economic Development with their 10 Year Economic Development Strategy are being very, very purposeful on the kinds of things that we’re selling for. We are diversifying in a purposeful way,” Nenshi said.

He added that the city is focusing on the areas where Calgary already has a great deal of strength such as clean tech, transportation and logistics, agri-business, creative industries and tourism.

Nenshi hopes that the low vacancy rates in Calgary will draw new businesses to the city not only for low rental rates but also for a pool of talented workers to draw from.

“Two diamond mining companies have recently announced their head offices moving here. The opportunity isn’t just empty offices. The opportunity is continuing to be part of our energy.”

He said that there is also an opportunity for local businesses because while there have been a lot of business closures, there have been a record number of small businesses starting up too.

“It means that people are increasingly confident in themselves to start selling themselves and their abilities globally for right here in Calgary… Now is the time. Now is the time to foster local businesses. Now is the time to support local entrepreneurs. Now is the time to give them their first order.”

Nenshi said that the second way the city can help is to continue to build on services that could help the economy.

“The third thing is to keep building stuff,” Nenshi said. “At a time when interest rates are nearly zero at a time when construction costs are a third lower than they were two years ago and at a time when people are unemployed, it is precisely the time to be building stuff that we need.”

He says that road construction, love it or hate it, is a very deliberate thing the city is doing in order to build infrastructure that’s needed anyway.

“Building that infrastructure not only improves the quality of life today, but it also helps up attract new business into the city.”

The fourth thing that government can do, Nenshi said, is make sure that it is running as efficiently as it possibly can.

“One of our priorities is a well-run city. I am very, very proud of the work that’s been done to make the city more efficient. We have done incredible work on cutting red tape with partners across the city, including the Chamber, to help people save time and money.”

Nenshi says the zero-based review of departments is continuing to reveal efficiencies.

He added that while the property tax rate isn’t going up for Calgary, there is a problem facing officials.

“For many, many years, because our downtown was extremely successful, the way that our assessment works is it’s the same rate for businesses across the city and because the downtown was so extraordinarily successful, a lot of people outside of downtown were riding that wave.

“Now that we’ve seen such a change downtown, even though the tax rate is frozen, the assessment base has shifted and a lot of businesses outside of downtown are going to see shocking tax increases.”

Nenshi agreed that that wasn’t right and is glad that there is $15M available to contribute to business owners to help them offset the costs.