– Catherine Holt is the CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached at 250.383.7191 or CEO@victoriachamber.ca. www.victoriachamber.ca
GREATER VICTORIA – The US election results demonstrate the critical need for informed voices to build strong, collaborative communities. As the voice of business for the Greater Victoria business community, The Chamber is at its most effective when backed by an active and informed membership.
Chamber staff, board directors and volunteers did an outstanding job this year engaging, supporting, and informing the business community. We published The Chamber’s positon and work related to advocacy in over 120 segments in our weekly e-newsletter and 17 in-depth articles in our bi-monthly business magazine.
We hosted six events with elected officials and business leaders. All that on top of the countless articles and commentary in the media as well as shared via our social media channels.
We regularly meet and correspond with elected officials at all levels of government to ensure business interests are represented. We meet monthly with Victoria Mayor Helps and key regional business organizations, as well as with regional mayors throughout the year. We presented to the BC Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services in October and the BC Caucus of the Federal Government in March.
The Chamber continues its long history of leveraging the power of the BC Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce network, joining our voice with over 200,000 businesses across Canada to maximize our influence and impact.
Over the past year, we saw considerable movement on a number of longstanding Chamber priorities. We saw the start of construction on the McKenzie Interchange to alleviate the largest and most dangerous traffic bottleneck on the Island. The Province announced $75 million in new funding for affordable housing in Greater Victoria.
Thanks to the Project Board put in place at the insistence of the Province, we are finally moving forward with the Core Area Wastewater Treatment Project. We should hear the results of the Capital Integrated Services and Governance Initiative in December, which should provide our 14 local governments with a clear path towards improved regional governance.
There is more money for the Victoria Regional Transit Commission to build new buses and we’re hopeful the gas tax increase of two cents for bus service will be in the February budget. Although these successes may be tied to the upcoming provincial election, we’re still pleased to see these results on issues we have championed.
There is still lots of work to do. We have record-high housing prices and the lowest rental vacancy rate in the country. We have labour shortages, especially in construction and hospitality, and our traffic congestion is pretty horrific. We have too many local governments with too many processes slowing us down. And climate change and related changes to our regulatory environment is a growing concern for everyone.
Our to-do list may be long, but we have a long history – over 150 years in fact! – of getting the job done.
Upcoming Events:
- Thursday, December 8 | Chair’s Holiday Reception |5 pm to 7 pm | Max Furniture (1 – 2745 Bridge St.)
- Wednesday, January 11 | Business Awards Information Session | Noon to 1:00 pm | The Chamber (100 – 852 Fort St.)
- Thursday, January 12 | Prodigy Group Mingle | 5 pm to 7 pm | Island Savings – Mayfair (3195 Douglas St.)
- Thursday, January 19 | Business Mixer w/Tourism Victoria | 5 pm to 7 pm | Greater Victoria Harbour Authority
