Presidents Message November /December 2011

Kathryn Coll, President

Welcome 2012!  A new year always brings reflection on the year that has passed and anticipation for the year that is yet to come.  At the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce, we can look back on 2011 and reflect that it was a busy year for the Chamber; one that both the board and the staff can feel proud of in terms of our accomplishments.  As president, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Kathy Hambly, our executive director, for the leadership and initiative that she has demonstrated this past year on behalf of all of the business members of the Chamber.

2012 is a special year for the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce as we celebrate our 125th year!  We are in the planning stages now and will soon be announcing the various ways that the Chamber will be celebrating and acknowledging the honour of representing business in the Greater Charlottetown Area for the past 125 years.

In addition to planning celebrations, we will also be working hard on issues of concern to our membership.  The federal government belt tightening, which we anticipate will affect a number of jobs at DVA and other federal departments, is top on our list.  We recently met with a cross-section of our members to hear business perspectives on the impacts of these proposed cutbacks.  Based on the feedback, we wrote to the prime minister and our federal representatives to express our concerns.  Our board executive is meeting with Minister Shea later this month to discuss the issue.   While the Chamber supports fiscal responsibility at every level of government, we also believe in the need to mitigate the economic impact of employment cuts in an economy which is significantly reliant on public sector employment.

Business development is always on our agenda and we are looking forward to working with all of our community partners to continue to strengthen existing businesses and encourage new businesses to the area.   We are very proud of the continuing success of our PEI Connectors program, thanks in large part to the leadership of Don MacCormac, our lead connector, Shawn Murphy and our new liaison with the Chinese community, Lannia Pan MacAleer.  We are currently working with 37 clients (or "connectees" as we call them) including 28 entrepreneurs and nine international students from 11 countries in the Middle East, Europe and North America.  We continue to support young entrepreneurs through our Biz under 40 program (now 300 strong), our Mentorship program and Young Entrepreneur seats.

We continue to seek ways to assist our members in growing their businesses beyond our borders.  Our Export Committee, under the leadership of Wendy Drake, continues to promote export opportunities within the membership.  We look forward to another trade mission to the Caribbean in 2012, in partnership with Trade Team PEI.  We are thrilled to be sponsoring a trip to China in the fall of 2012 as a cultural exchange for our members to learn first-hand about the fastest growing segment of our Island population.  This once-in-a-lifetime travel experience will showcase the richness of the Chinese culture and inform participants about the world's emerging superpower.  You won't want to miss out on this one!

The holiday season is behind us, we are all back to the gym and hard at work in our businesses.  It is time to refocus our energies back on making our own business and our collective business community, strong, vibrant and rich with opportunity.