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Yellowknife Chamber eyes political arena

More active role includes endorsing civic candidates

Norm Poole
Northern News Services


Yellowknife (Jan 29/03) - The 2003 action plan for a re-energized Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce includes taking a more active role in municipal politics.

And possibly in territorial politics as well.

"We have never been involved actively in municipal politics but that will change this year," said Yellowknife Chamber president David McPherson.

"It is our intention to endorse candidates in the civic election and possibly in the territorial election as well."

McPherson said the chamber will endorse candidates whose views best reflect those of the business community on pressing civic and territorial issues.

Representatives from nearly 30 companies met late last year to draft the Chamber's strategic action plan for 2003. Issues targeted for action include downtown revitalization, affordable housing, the shortage of skilled labour, transportation, a new convention centre, and the cost of living in the North.

Housing and labor shortages are near the top of the list.

McPherson said the housing situation in the city won't significantly change until the city passes land development over to the private sector.

"We want the city to get out of the land development business. We also want to see lower land costs and one way to do that is to open up more land for development."

He called on the city to "re-think the way it makes land available to developers."

Sales of large lot packages, as in Phase 3 at Niven Lake, restricts bidding and bars smaller developers, he said.

"There are only so many companies in town who can bid on 25 or 30 lot packages. Smaller companies don't bid because they can't handle the costs involving in putting in services such as water and sewer for a package that large.

"When they don't bid, the city points to a lack of interest -- and then use that as a rationale for getting back into land development. We don't want them to do that."

The Chamber will continue to lobby the GNWT to introduce incentive programs for developers.

"We pushed them last year and they didn't come through with it. Hopefully they will this year."

Active role

The Chamber plans a more active role in addressing the territory's shortage of skilled labour, in part by pressing for more emphasis on trades training at the high school level, said McPherson.

"We will also be looking for ways to help unemployed people back into the system. Estimates are there may be as many as 4,000 unemployed people in the territory who are invisible to the system.

"Most probably don't have (a) high school (education). We have to let them know that there are jobs and training available to them, including apprenticeships. The mines are even doing literacy training for employees. A lot of people aren't aware of that."

Under McPherson and executive director Dale Thomson, membership in the Chamber has exploded in the past year.

"We were down to 292 members and we now have more than 400," said McPherson.

An expanded members benefits package includes a group insurance plan designed for small- and medium-sized firms. Firms with a single employee can enrol in the plan, said McPherson.

The Chamber's willingness to take a higher profile in the community has played a big part in attracting new members.

"We have had to show small- and medium-sized companies especially that they are going to be part of a vibrant, relevant organization.

"They want to know that their participation is going to help make a difference.

"Our goal a year ago was to have the highest chamber membership per-capita in Canada.

"We are very close to that now.'