Chamber of Commerce Week (Feb. 17 to 21) is an opportunity for chambers of commerce across B.C. to showcase their hard work on behalf of business communities throughout the province.
This year, chambers are celebrating the theme of "Leadership in Action," which highlights the leadership chambers bring to their business communities, working hard to enhance B.C. as a business-friendly jurisdiction with strong opportunities for all British Columbians.
And this leadership delivers results. Just this month, B.C.'s chamber network, working in partnership with the B.C. government, was able to deliver a significant win for B.C.'s businesses: key, business-friendly changes to a recycling regulation that had caused concern in business communities across B.C. Thanks to the hard work of chambers in B.C., working closely with a responsive government, more than 99 per cent of B.C.'s businesses will face no red tape or fees under this recycling regulation, which deals with packaging and printed paper.
And that's just one of many positive changes the chamber network has led for B.C. businesses. Among many areas of impact, B.C.'s chambers have been a key voice:
Encouraging balanced budgets at all levels of government;
Calling for solutions to B.C.'s skills gap; and Encouraging municipalities to actively support local economic development.
As members of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, chambers throughout the province are part of B.C.'s most extensive business policy development process. This process brings B.C. businesses' innovative ideas and on-the-ground insights to B.C.'s decision makers, and helps shape an ever more business-friendly province. Chamber network policies span from fiscal and tax policy to infrastructure to industry-specific issues.
At the local level, chambers are catalysts for change, bringing together business and community leaders to figure out how to take each community forward.
A part of the community since March 26, 1910, the Delta Chamber of Commerce has entered 2014 with a new vision, a new direction and a new energy.
Our focus is creating value for our members, our sustaining partners and our community and can be summed up in our New Vision ... Strengthening Commerce and Industry Because Delta Matters.
Our growing roster of members see the value of investing in chamber membership and taking full advantage of benefits that only membership can bring ... from cost-effective services through the Chambers of Commerce Group Insurance Plan and competitive merchant services and point-of-sale systems from First Data, to savings on dry cleaning from Wagner's European Fabricare and a multitude of before, during and after work networking events and learning opportunities.
So as B.C. celebrates Chamber Week, don't miss the opportunity to swing by your local chamber, join in on some Chamber Week events, and celebrate the leadership, energy and can-do attitude that B.C.'s chambers bring to our communities.
Orv Nickel is chair of the board of directors of the Delta Chamber of Commerce.
