https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Burke-Chamber-of-Commerce-Nov-19-2020.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n
\nTRANSCRIPT:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nERICA BUTLER:
\n<\/strong>What\u2019s the town\u2019s pitch to get local businesses to join the Greater Moncton Chamber?<\/p>\nJAMIE BURKE:
\n<\/strong>So I guess the the main pitch is that there\u2019s a bit of a discount on, where we\u2019re 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\u2026 The overall intent is to create a Sackville chapter of the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Moncton\u2026 Then the town of Sackville will subsidize the membership fee by 50%.<\/p>\nEB:
\n<\/strong>And how many businesses are required to form a Sackville chapter?<\/p>\nJB:
\n<\/strong>We don\u2019t have a threshold. The more the better, of course, but I guess we originally were hoping that we\u2019d get at least 15 to 20. And that would kind of give us that critical mass to make it worthwhile.<\/p>\nEB:
\n<\/strong>Are the costs for joining a chamber of commerce\u2026 I don\u2019t 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?<\/p>\nJB:
\n<\/strong>No, you got it, it\u2019s relative to the size of the business.<\/p>\nEB:
\n<\/strong>So depending on how big the businesses that are that join, that will determine what the town\u2019s contribution is as well.<\/p>\nJB:
\n<\/strong>That\u2019s correct.<\/p>\nEB:
\n<\/strong>So why did the town decide to put their money behind this?<\/p>\nJB:
\n<\/strong>Well, I guess for several reasons. We\u2019ve recognized for quite some time that there\u2019s 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\u2019re trying to get off the ground.<\/p>\nEB:
\n<\/strong>You mentioned the Business Improvement Area. Let\u2019s just talk a bit more about how the Chamber of Commerce differs from the BIA. The Business Improvement Area is really just\u2026 there\u2019s a sort of a line drawn around downtown Sackville, would you say?<\/p>\nJB:
\n<\/strong>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.<\/p>\nEB:
\n<\/strong>Okay, so it\u2019s 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?<\/p>\nJB:
\n<\/strong>That\u2019s 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\u2019s collected by the province on the property tax collection system, and that levy is remitted back to to the BIA.<\/p>\nEB:
\n<\/strong>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?<\/p>\nJB:
\n<\/strong>They get a number of things. Mainly, what the Chamber does is that they work on on members\u2019 behalf to influence issues of public policy. They keep members informed of the business climate, particularly\u2026 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.<\/p>\nThey\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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\u2019s crucial to the business sector.<\/p>\n
EB:
\n<\/strong>What\u2019s the history on Sackville and the Chamber of Commerce. Has there been a local chapter in the past?<\/p>\nJB:
\n<\/strong>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.<\/p>\nBut 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\u2019t been, I would say, an individual or group hasn\u2019t really taken that on, to kind of get it back off the ground.<\/p>\n
So we here at the Town, we see the benefit of a Chamber. We\u2019ve been working very closely with the Greater Moncton Chamber as part of the Southeast Economic Recovery Task Force work that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
EB:
\n<\/strong>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?<\/p>\nJB:
\n<\/strong>It would be staffed in the Greater Moncton Region.<\/p>\nBut I mean, we\u2019ve had John Wishart, here, the CEO of the Chamber. He\u2019s hosted a meeting here with local businesses. We\u2019ve had a business after hours event here, before the pandemic set in, to try and introduce the Greater Moncton Chamber to our local merchants.<\/p>\n
So they\u2019re certainly no stranger to the Sackville area, and they\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n
EB:
\n<\/strong>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\u2019s it coming from?<\/p>\nJB:
\n<\/strong>It was originally spearheaded by the town, and it\u2019s since\u2026 I guess the join campaign that we\u2019re promoting now\u2014which you\u2019ll start to see some social media posts and additional information in the coming days\u2014we\u2019re doing that in partnership with the Business Improvement Area, so Mainstreet Redevelopment.<\/p>\nEB:
\n<\/strong>So Mainstreet is on board. And do you know how many members you\u2019ve recruited so far?<\/p>\nJB:
\n<\/strong>I don\u2019t. I know the town has joined. And Mount Allison is a long standing member of the Chamber of Commerce as well. So I don\u2019t have the exact numbers, but hopefully over the coming days and weeks, we\u2019ll certainly see that number grow.<\/p>\nEB:
\n<\/strong>Is there a deadline for this to happen? What\u2019s the timeline?<\/p>\nJB:
\n<\/strong>We\u2019re 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.<\/p>\nBut if anybody has a question on the Chamber\u2026 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s the town\u2019s pitch to get local businesses to join the Greater Moncton Chamber? JAMIE BURKE: So I guess…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":22809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,57,225],"tags":[3631,824,823],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22802"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=22802"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=22802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}