Local Chamber Of Commerce Seeks Economic Boost

Members of the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce will be passing on the views of local businesses at the BC Chamber of Commerce Annual general meeting and Conference getting underway today in Victoria.

President Dauna Kennedy Grant says they want to ensure local business interests and concerns are understood.

The Chamber reps will be putting forward three policies.

1. The first policy is a renewal of an existing policy that calls for an increase in funding for the Arts and Cultural Sector as an economic driver.

2. The second policy calls on the province to level the playing field for private liquor stores to enable them to be able to deal directly with liquor producers and to be able to distribute liquor on a wholesale basis to other liquor establishments in equal competition to government liquor stores.

3. The third policy seeks to have the province work with local governments to explore ways to optimize the timing when developers pay required development cost charges (DCC’s). Currently those charges are due long before any sales take place and it is thought that if the developer doesn’t have to carry the financial burden for as long a period that it could save money (financing charges) and potentially have a positive impact on the cost of housing. This issue was identified at the Development Forum that was hosted by Big Red and the City of Vernon last November.

“This is the largest number of policy resolutions from our Chamber being tabled at the BC Chamber in quite some time which is reflective of the efforts to be more active in advocating on behalf of our members and the Greater Vernon business community,” says Kennedy Grant.

“Our Chamber is committed to supporting and growing the people who power our community and help us create a more business-friendly B.C. We think these policies will help achieve that and we are optimistic they will be supported by our peer Chambers.”
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.