The town of Sackville is encouraging local businesses to join the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce and form a Sackville chapter.

CHMA speaks with CAO Jamie Burke to find out more. Listen here:

TRANSCRIPT:

ERICA BUTLER:
What’s the town’s pitch to get local businesses to join the Greater Moncton Chamber?

JAMIE BURKE:
So I guess the the main pitch is that there’s a bit of a discount on, where we’re looking to pay half of the membership fee to get the initiative off the ground. So if a business owner is interested in joining the Chamber… The overall intent is to create a Sackville chapter of the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Moncton… Then the town of Sackville will subsidize the membership fee by 50%.

EB:
And how many businesses are required to form a Sackville chapter?

JB:
We don’t have a threshold. The more the better, of course, but I guess we originally were hoping that we’d get at least 15 to 20. And that would kind of give us that critical mass to make it worthwhile.

EB:
Are the costs for joining a chamber of commerce… I don’t even know have any idea how big they are. Are they relative to the size of the business, or is there just a set fee?

JB:
No, you got it, it’s relative to the size of the business.

EB:
So depending on how big the businesses that are that join, that will determine what the town’s contribution is as well.

JB:
That’s correct.

EB:
So why did the town decide to put their money behind this?

JB:
Well, I guess for several reasons. We’ve recognized for quite some time that there’s no business group that represents the entire municipality. A Chamber of Commerce is quite different than a Business Improvement Area, which is a set geographical area. So I guess we felt that it was important for momentum, enthusiasm, and capacity building to have that type of establishment here in Sackville. Particularly with the pandemic upon us, we know that local businesses are struggling, we know that the tourism economy in New Brunswick and the rest of Atlantic Canada and the country in general is struggling because of the pandemic. So having some additional support for local businesses was certainly something that we’re trying to get off the ground.

EB:
You mentioned the Business Improvement Area. Let’s just talk a bit more about how the Chamber of Commerce differs from the BIA. The Business Improvement Area is really just… there’s a sort of a line drawn around downtown Sackville, would you say?

JB:
Absolutely right. Generally speaking, it goes from Cranewood down as far as the Harness Shop, and then from Cackling Goose down towards Bridge Street and Lorne Street.

EB:
Okay, so it’s very much a downtown improvement situation. And any business within that area is required to pay a tax towards that Business Improvement Area, so that they have a budget to work with?

JB:
That’s correct. The Business Improvement Areas Act of New Brunswick indicates that there can be a levy imposed, which we do here by by-law, and then that’s collected by the province on the property tax collection system, and that levy is remitted back to to the BIA.

EB:
Now the Chamber of Commerce, on the other hand, that could include anyone from CamTran and Moneris, some of the bigger employers, down to some of the smaller businesses. What do businesses get out of joining a Chamber of Commerce?

JB:
They get a number of things. Mainly, what the Chamber does is that they work on on members’ behalf to influence issues of public policy. They keep members informed of the business climate, particularly… I know the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Moncton has done almost daily news briefings of the changing business climate, government programs, etc. So, they keep their members informed of the business horizon.

They’re responsive to the needs of some of the members. So if somebody is having a particular challenge or issue with something, they have a team that can be deployed to help that business grow and overcome some of those challenges that a small business, entrepreneur, or even larger business may face.

They also help build networks, they do a variety of networking, both online and pre, and hopefully post, pandemic, in-person networking events. And for Greater Moncton specifically, they do a business after hours where it’s an opportunity to showcase a local member and then all the other members are invited to gather and share ideas, stories, successes. Just kind of build that network that’s crucial to the business sector.

EB:
What’s the history on Sackville and the Chamber of Commerce. Has there been a local chapter in the past?

JB:
There was always a Sackville Chamber itself. And for many years, the Sackville Chamber and the Business Improvement Association, being Mainstreet Redevelopment, they shared office space.

But for, you know, a variety of reasons, it certainly predates my time here with the town, the chamber has since kind of wrapped up. And there hasn’t been, I would say, an individual or group hasn’t really taken that on, to kind of get it back off the ground.

So we here at the Town, we see the benefit of a Chamber. We’ve been working very closely with the Greater Moncton Chamber as part of the Southeast Economic Recovery Task Force work that’s been underway regionally. And certainly to have even a local chapter, or our own local Chamber hopefully at some point in the future, would certainly work to our advantage for the overall betterment of the community.

EB:
Do you think that this would involve having an office with staff people in Sackville? Or would we be sort of working off the Greater Moncton office?

JB:
It would be staffed in the Greater Moncton Region.

But I mean, we’ve had John Wishart, here, the CEO of the Chamber. He’s hosted a meeting here with local businesses. We’ve had a business after hours event here, before the pandemic set in, to try and introduce the Greater Moncton Chamber to our local merchants.

So they’re certainly no stranger to the Sackville area, and they’re certainly more than willing to come down and engage and have events here for, not just potential Sackville members, but also to showcase some Sackville businesses to the the rest of the Chamber members through Greater Moncton.

EB:
So this is actually something that was started pre-pandemic. Is this being spearheaded by local businesses, or someone local, or is this a town initiative? Where’s it coming from?

JB:
It was originally spearheaded by the town, and it’s since… I guess the join campaign that we’re promoting now—which you’ll start to see some social media posts and additional information in the coming days—we’re doing that in partnership with the Business Improvement Area, so Mainstreet Redevelopment.

EB:
So Mainstreet is on board. And do you know how many members you’ve recruited so far?

JB:
I don’t. I know the town has joined. And Mount Allison is a long standing member of the Chamber of Commerce as well. So I don’t have the exact numbers, but hopefully over the coming days and weeks, we’ll certainly see that number grow.

EB:
Is there a deadline for this to happen? What’s the timeline?

JB:
We’re offering the the subsidy up until the end of the year. So as of December 31st. After that, in the coming year, businesses would be expected to pay the full freight of the membership fee.

But if anybody has a question on the Chamber… Members of the Chamber of Commerce do get access to the benefits package through the Chamber of Commerce program. So any questions on membership fees, the benefits or programs offered by the chamber, I know the the representatives at the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Moncton are certainly open to answering any of those questions that our local merchants may have.