– Bill Collette is the Executive Director of the Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at bill@albernichamber.ca or 250.724.6535
PORT ALBERNI – The Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce (AVCOC) was pleased to represent the local business community at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce AGM held in Fredericton NB in late September. We have never been involved in the National scene so this was a first for AVCOC.
Our primary reason for attending was to present our Policy Recommendation titled “Supporting New Investment in Infrastructure to Enhance Canada’s Asia Pacific Gateway Canada Initiative.”
The premise of the Policy Recommendation was and is to encourage the Federal Government to invest more heavily in our transportation needs along the West Coast of Canada. The APGCI has been quite successful and in some ways almost too much so.
That success has contributed to significant municipal infrastructure costs particularly in the Lower Mainland with ongoing road maintenance and the success is also a large contributor to the commute time issues as felt daily by tens of thousands of people through the Vancouver area.
The policy recommendation put forward by the Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce and supported by the Nanaimo, Parksville, Duncan/Cowichan and Qualicum Beach Chambers encourages the Federal Government to invest in the infrastructure needs of today that will allow us (Canada) to continue in the forefront of the Pacific Gateway.
One such investment pushed by ourselves and our colleagues is the proposed Port Alberni Transshipment Hub (PATH) which would be located in the heart of Huu-ay-aht First Nation territory who are also on board and working closely with the Port Authority. To learn more about PATH please visit their site at: www.pathbc.ca.
