– Dan Rogers is the General Manager at the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce and can be reached at manager@vernonchamber.ca.
VERNON – Chambers from across the Province are getting ready for the Annual BC Chamber AGM in Victoria at the end of May and the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce is no exception. Reps from the chamber’s policy advisory committee have been busy over the last several months examining various policy issues and will be tabling a number of policy papers at the BC Chamber convention.
“We’ll be attending the event to ensure our local businesses’ views are understood and to help shape the BC Chamber’s business advocacy agenda,” says Dauna Kennedy Grant, president, Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce who will be joined by chamber vice president Markus Schrott.
One of the policies the chamber is bringing forward seeks greater investment by the province in public arts and culture as a means to stimulate the economy. Currently BC is in the middle of the pack when it comes to provincial funding of the arts on a per capita basis even though BC’s economy is among the strongest.
Another policy resolution seeks to have the province level the playing field to allow the private sector to play a greater role in the wholesale distribution of alcohol.
The third policy is focused on optimising the timing of payment of development cost charges by developers to local governments. Those charges are to help pay for major infrastructure that is required as a result of the impact of the proposed new development. The idea is that if payment occurs closer to when actual revenue from sales starts to come in, it will lessen the risk and financing costs to developers which in most circumstances are simply passed onto consumers.
Currently DCC’s have to be paid at the sub-division stage, which can be a burden to small developers who must secure financing for their projects well in advance of any sale.
Each year member Chambers across BC develop and submit policies for the consideration at the AGM. Each policy must receive two-thirds of votes to pass. If the policy is supported it will become official BC Chamber policy, and the BC Chamber will advocate it to the appropriate level of government.
“We are pleased to be going to the BC Chamber AGM with three policies representing important issues from our members that impact the economic well being of our community,” added Grant. “This is the largest number of policy resolutions from our chamber in quite some time which is reflective of the efforts we have made to be more active in advocating on behalf of our members and the business community.
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In other news, the chamber has been extremely busy preparing for the Valley Wide Business Expo. This unique event brings together chamber members from throughout the Okanagan Valley for a trade show that moves from one community to the next each year. Eight chambers in the valley coordinate the annual event and this year the Greater Vernon Chamber is hosted it at Predator Ridge in early May. Next year Valley Wide is planned for Osoyoos/Oliver.
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The Chamber recently joined with Community Futures North Okanagan in staging the 2017 Enterprize Challenge. Budding entrepreneurs had the opportunity to pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges for the chance to win a business package worth nearly $30,000.
The program was developed to support and encourage entrepreneurship in the North Okanagan. Entrepreneurs had to pitch their ideas and out of close to thirty participants, ten were selected as finalists. It was an incredibly difficult decision for the judges but in the end it was Martin Paris of Jolly Good Spudz that took home top spot.
Paris dared to hope his business idea would be chosen as one of the top three winners in the Enterprize Challenge. He moved from his native England to Vernon five years ago, and while he’s held jobs in construction, his love is in the kitchen, namely potatoes.
“I just thought I’d give it a try,” said Paris, who nearly pulled out of the intensive, eight-week long competition because of the time demands, in which participants make presentations to judges and receive mentoring as they prepare to prove their financial viability and marketing plans. Good thing he hung in until the end!
Second place went to Juanita Miller of Juanita Miller Nutrition and third place was Rebecca Hackman of Bites Creative. Congrats to the winners of the challenge and a big “way to go” to Community Futures North Okanagan for coordinating the annual event.
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Finally, we are extremely pleased to welcome our new chamber members including Halina Seniors Society, TLC Gardening Services, Cap-It Vernon, ICS Clean Supplies, Nucleus Strategies, Iris The Visual Group and Balance Bookkeeping.