– Deb McClelland is the executive director of the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached email at deb@kamloopschamber.ca.
KAMLOOPS – At the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce, we have a passion for business-friendly public policy. Throughout the year we are continuously at work, learning about the challenges that our local businesses are facing in order to bring those concerns forward at both the Provincial and Federal levels.
Our goal is to help eliminate red tape and to bring forward recommendations to all levels of government, whose adoption will improve the business climate of cities across our nation.
As is to be expected, much of this work goes on behind the scenes. However, once a year, at our Public Policy Debate, we bring these recommendations forward to our membership for – just that – debate. It is critical that we hear from as many voices as possible when we look to finalize and adopt these recommendations that will be brought forward to the applicable level of government.
At the Public Policy Debate, individuals have the opportunity to hear the proposed recommendations, ask questions, make suggestions and ultimately vote on whether they believe we are suggesting a truly beneficial change to government law.
Our debate is taking place on Wednesday March 15th; the same day as our Annual General Meeting. The Public Policy Debate runs from 3:00PM – 5:00PM and is free for anyone to attend and participate. However, only Kamloops Chamber members in good standing are eligible to vote.
This year, we will bring forward several recommendations; two of which are anticipated to elicit great discussion.
The first discussion will focus on the creation of a tax credit for energy-saving renovations made to homes that were built in 1990 or earlier. On this topic, it is especially important that we hear from homeowners and those working in real estate, construction and trades.
The second issue, and likely the “hot topic” for the afternoon, will be around the regulations of Short Term Rentals such as Airbnb. This is an extremely important matter to the chamber as any recommended changes will affect anyone directly involved with Short Term Rentals, particularly homeowners, those in any aspect of the travel, tourism and accommodation industries, and even those in real estate. As we prepare our recommendation to government on the issues facing Short Term Rentals, we look for your input.
If either of these two topics are of interest to you, if you would like to share your thoughts and ensure that your voice and the voice of the business community is heard before we formalize our recommendation to government, we invite you to register and attend our Public Policy Debate.
Your input is critical to ensuring that we are acting on the best behalf of our city and our business environment. To register, visit kamloopschamber.ca or call our office at 250.372.7722.
We look forward to engaging with you in this active display of democracy at work.
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Have you heard about our Mob series? Join us for our March Mob – Coffee Mob – on March 21st at The Art We Are from 10:00AM – 11:00AM. You’re going to take a coffee break anyway, so why not drop by The Art We Are, support a fantastic local business, and make some new business connections all within an hour! We will see you there!