I'm a proponent of small business...I do think that such enterprises create the economic "health" of a community.
I didn't realize, until recently joining the local Chamber of Commerce's Board, that in every other Chamber location in B.C. the role of the Chamber is to lobby the provincial government, on behalf of small businesses in their areas...Salt Spring is the only one that doesn't do this.
The Chamber is meant to be a political entity, giving voice to the concerns of business, in each Chamber jurisdiction.
Salt Spring has a lot to make up for, then, for its previous lack in giving small business that "voice".
One of my thoughts: everyone in business (the retail store, the home studio artist, the restaurant, the gallery, the back hoe operator, the contractor, the excavator, the farmer, the writer, the newspaper, the nursery, the landscaper, the grocery store, the financial institution, the marina, and so on and so on...all of them need to belong to the Chamber.
They are all businesses, and a strong Chamber, everyone a member, will give resonance and power to the entrepreneurial voice.
The Chamber is the platform for growing the local economy, and for lobbying the government for best benefits for the Island.
Am going to do my best to encourage this inclusive quality to the Chamber...everyone is "in".
And your thoughts are? Always welcome.....
How may I help you to discover special Salt Spring Island & the Southern Gulf Islands? Call me!
