The Thompson Chamber of Commerce stayed the course during its annual general meeting (AGM) at the Meridian Hotel March 21, re-electing Raj Thethy as president and Keith MacDonald as vice-president of the executive by acclamation.
The board also welcomed Sandy Hayes as its new secretary, replacing Colleen Smook, while the position of treasurer remains vacant.
Elected directors include incumbents like Dave Moore, Volker Beckmann, Duncan Regier and Edward Palmer, and new recruits such as Dennis Green and Smook.
AGM attendees heard that their overall membership increased by a single person in 2017, from 149 to 150, with nine members leaving but 10 people joining up.
“We are back on the climb,” said past president Oswald Sawh, who chaired the lunchtime meeting.
While Sawh noted that the number of members was in the low to mid 140s a few years ago, he said the percentage of businesses that are members of the Chamber usually hold steady at about 60 to 70 per cent of all Thompson-based businesses, which fluctuates from year to year.
Plans to help increase the number of members in future years include branching out to include home-based businesses.
Budget
Sawh also presented the organization’s financial report during this lunchtime meeting, and talked about how the chamber only showed a slight loss of about $800 over the past year, which is an improvement over the previous year.
Sawh said this improved financial position comes as a result of the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce lowering their membership fees to $1,121.61.
Nearly 80 per cent of the Thompson Chamber’s revenue comes from membership fees and group insurance plan enrolment, supplemented by other sources such as the 50-50 draw.
“We don’t have a huge budget, as the report shows, so we have to make the most of what we have,” said Sawh.
Funding gap
The most extensive discussion during the lunchtime AGM took place before the approval of last year’s AGM minutes.
Former mayor Tim Johnston, manager of Community Futures North Central Development and a business owner, said one of the biggest concerns for local businesses should be the fact that the Communities Economic Development Fund (CEDF), which Sawh serves as the CEO, is currently unable to lend money to small businesses because of a moratorium imposed by the provincial government.
Johnston said this is creating a funding gap for business owners who need more than $150,000, which is the maximum amount that Community Futures can lend but less than the amount that commercial banks usually bother with.
“I’m a client of CEDF,” said Johnston. “And right now the building that we used to be in would be sitting empty if CEDF wouldn’t have stepped up and lent that money, because a traditional bank was not going to take that small a loan.”
Johnston went on to add that he thought a letter from a group representing business owners would have more impact than those from government agencies or municipal governments.
Thethy chimed in by saying that the Chamber hasn’t written a letter yet, but he would make it one of the first acts of his second term.
“I’ve had numerous talks with our MLA and the response I’ve gotten back is it’s still under review. The review should not last a whole year.”
On the bright side, Thethy said he also asked about rumours that CEDF would be closing down, but was told that is not the case.
Future of local business in Thompson
This year’s AGM also featured an evening portion at the Meridian Hotel, where several local business owners talked about their prospects and concerns heading into the future.
Even though many are understandably weary about Thompson’s economic climate given the drastic reduction of workers at Vale, pretty much all the people who stepped up to the podium that night hit on the idea that the north is full of untapped business opportunities.
“There’s so much potential here,” said Andre Proulx, owner of AMP Industries. “It gets to the point where I wish I had multiple of me, because I have so many ideas … but I can’t do it all.”
Veterinarian Jennifer Nyhof and chiropractor Chelsea Lillbeck said this applies to their practices as well, since they service pretty much all of Northern Manitoba.
However, this also means that their respective staffs are stretched a little thin, since recruiting quality employees and convincing them to stay in the north is a constant struggle.
“I will also echo Andre’s comments in that sometimes I wish that I could clone myself and have one extra person or two or three,” said Nyhof. “Because a big challenge is a work-life balance, especially with being able to provide 24/7 on-call coverage.”
Moving forward, Proulx said the chamber can help remedy this problem by upping their efforts to get young people involved with this organization and the local business community in general.
“We’re here to stay and we need more people to invest in Thompson and stay here. It is a great community, there’s a lot of offer, especially from the size of it and it’s definitely a great place to call home.”
⎯with files from Kyle Darbyson
