The Bonnyville and District Chamber of Commerce have their sights set on a positive 2019.
During their annual general meeting on Monday, March 25, the chamber outlined what they accomplished last year and what’s to come.
“As of 2018, we were 253 members strong as of the end of December,” expressed Robyn Ducharme, president for the chamber. “That represents 5,853 full-time positions and 85 part-time positions in our region. That’s pretty amazing numbers right there.”
Along with managing the Vezeau Beach campgrounds, they offered workshops and events to their members and the community.
The organization received the Labour Market Partnership Grant in collaboration with the St. Paul and District Chamber of Commerce, which allowed them to bring in guest speakers and host business support meetings.
A highlight for Ducharme was their advocacy regarding government policies surrounding minimum wage increases and the new cannabis sector.
“We consider 2018 to be a successful year during a trying time for our region here in Bonnyville and across the province,” she said.
Members of the chamber have “hit the ground running” for 2019, focusing on their advocacy efforts.
“Serina (Parsons, executive director) was able to meet with senators to propose amendments to Bill C-69, and working with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), we were able to bring in the most recent industry news right to our region,” explained Ducharme.
They’re also ensuring residents head to the polls informed by hosting an all-candidates forum ahead of the April 16 election.
Alberta Chambers of Commerce speaks on Vote Prosperity
Their guest speaker during the meeting was Jason Leslie from the Alberta Chambers of Commerce, who discussed the Vote Prosperity campaign.
“It’s a framework to leverage economic advantages and strengthen our global competitiveness,” Leslie detailed. “Competitiveness is a theme of business in our province, but really, across the country as well. It’s certainly a theme we’re pushing for in our federal advocacy.”
They adopted the platform from the Ontario Chambers of Commerce, who saw a lot of success with it during their previous election.
“They made this platform to engage their community network at the local level, on the ground, in every riding, to make sure that their network was speaking about the exact same priorities and same messages to all candidates so that... it was clear,” he said.
After launching the platform last November, Leslie noted their hope was to see all parties “competing for how they could best deliver on the priorities that we’ve laid out.”
The Alberta Chambers of Commerce remains non-partisan, which is important for Vote Prosperity.
“We worked very hard to make it fact-based, data-driven, and to keep that on a high level,” Leslie said.
The plan is based on four pillars: strengthen business competitiveness, growing provincial trade, building healthy communities, and improving government accountability.
In order to outline these, the Alberta Chambers of Commerce have implemented social media campaigns to highlight why they were chosen.
“We really wanted to try and create a connection for people outside of business to understand why business (problems) matter... Unfortunately, in this province, and probably across the country, there’s been some governance that hasn’t necessarily appreciated, for lack of a better term, the contributions business really does for all of our shared prosperity,” detailed Leslie.
While each story focuses on the struggles business owners face, Leslie noted there’s a up-beat aspect as well.
“We tried to create with the campaign is a really good balance between analyzing where we are right now, what our challenges are around keeping that, but keeping our tone positive,” he expressed.
It also includes 17 recommendations, such as reducing the cost burden of regulation and legislative changes for businesses and ensuring policy aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions minimizes risk to the economy and business competitiveness.
Moving forward, Leslie encouraged those in attendance to engage with a new MLA when they come into office.
“This initiative doesn’t end at the election. It’s more critical in day one, once people are elected, that this is on the doorstep of whoever it is, and it says ‘hey, remember we asked you about this? How can we move this forward? How do we make sure it gets onto your agenda?”
