Yk Chamber of Commerce puts familiar face at helm
Ex-VP Renee Comeau elected president after serving role in the interim
Dana Bowen
Northern News Services
Friday, February 26, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
What was originally an interim role has become a permanent position for Renee Comeau, who has been elected president of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce after having taken on the job when Jason McEvoy stepped down in October.
Renee Comeau had been the interim president for the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce since October and is now taking over the role after having been elected to the position Tuesday at the annual general meeting. - Dana Bowen/NNSL photo |
Comeau announced her intention to remain president and was elected to the job for a two-year term at the Explorer Hotel, where she gained a majority of the members' votes at the annual general meeting held Tuesday.
"I'm just really excited about all the different opportunities that the chamber has, to bring a spotlight to Yellowknife businesses," she said.
Comeau has been on the board for the past four years as vice-president and said while no exact plans for 2016 have been put in place yet, she hopes to continue to draw more memberships and offer more to the community.
Comeau also said she was happy to announce revenue increased by 57 per cent compared to the previous year.
She attributed that to the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency which gave the chamber a grant of $144,960 - bringing revenue up to $537,613. It had been $341,291 in 2014.
Executive director Deneen Everett said there are plans to introduce a new campaign to get people shopping.
"We're keeping our lips sealed at this point but we hope to have a few new things," said Everett.
The latest campaign titled #ShopYK encouraged Yellowknife residents to shop locally with the use of passport-like stamp cards.
"For every $20 that residents of Yellowknife or consumers spent on participating businesses, they got one stamp on their passport," said Everett.
"Once they got a full passport they could enter it into a draw to win a $3,000 cash prize that in turn had to be spent on local participating businesses."
As a result, $850,000 was spent at the participating businesses.
Three people stepped down from the board, including McEvoy, John Hazenberg and Matt Belliveau. Paul Gillard, Gord Olson and Karl Schaefers took their places.
