New Chamber of Commerce looks to establish a solid and effective advocacy alliance
Maria Canton
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 11/01) - At its inception in February, the Chamber of Commerce of Inuvik brought 22 members on board.
Three months later, membership in the business advocacy group has more than doubled to 46.
Not bad for an organization striving to re-establish itself as new, bigger and better than the old chamber, which went belly up on June 1, 1997, carrying with it 43 members and a $5,000 debt.
Inuvik, however, has some 300 businesses, most of which have yet to see the merits of presenting a unified voice to town hall, the GNWT and the federal government.
But president Derek Lindsay isn't sounding any alarm bells just yet. In fact, he says things are definitely looking up.
"I think it's time to bury the hatchet with the old chamber. We needed a chamber because you could see a fragmentation in the business community happening, everyone was dealing with their problems separately, nobody was presenting a unified voice," says Lindsay, who is planning on setting up a chamber office in the front part of his own business, Lindsay Accounting Services.
"Businesspeople tend to find themselves over-burdened with the day-to-day activities of running their own business.
"The chamber gives them a place to voice complaints about legislation that affects them and then the chamber can voice those concerns to the appropriate body."
The idea being that strength lies in numbers, not the individual voice.
With an NWT Chamber of Commerce meeting not even a week away, Lindsay says he thinks the Inuvik contingent will be welcomed back.
Lyle Neis, a chamber board member and the general manager of Inuvik Gas Ltd., says he sees the chamber as a non-adversarial voice between businesses and the government.
"I've been here for three years and I found it a bit odd that the third-largest community in the NWT didn't have a chamber. There is definitely a need here, especially with what is forecasted to happen," says Neis, referring to the projected oil and gas boom in the region.
"Like anything renewed, this chamber will have to prove itself."
Neis says many benefits present themselves when a business joins a chamber, insurance deals for one. Another incentive is the low fee schedule. Home-based businesses pay $50, while others pay $100.
"It's the idea that more heads are better than one," he says.