SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Warren McLeod, co-owner of FSC Architects and Engineers, was sworn in as president of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce at the chamber's banquet and awards ceremony at the Yellowknife Inn on Friday night.

Warren McLeod is sworn in as president of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce by Mayor Gord Van Tighem on Friday night. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce award winners Business of the Year: Danmax Communications Businessperson of the Year: Jerry Avery, partner, Avery Cooper Financial Corp. Outstanding Community Support Winner: Nunasi Corp. Safety Business of the Year: Tlicho Landtran Transport Ltd. Safety Businessperson of the Year: Mike Suchlandt, RTL Robinson Enterprises

McLeod replaces Jeff Barbutza, who served as acting president of chamber since the summer.

Ted Savelle is now out as executive director, while Ellie Sasseville, the chamber's previous executive director, is under contract to the chamber as a consultant until December.

In an interview with Yellowknifer, McLeod talks about the staff changes, the high cost of living in Yellowknife and what his priorities as chamber president will be.

Yellowknifer: So what's going on at the chamber? It seems like a game of musical chairs.

McLeod: What happened was Jeff was offered another position in his company. It was based in Fort McMurray. So, as a result, he's leaving town and he stepped down as president. I was first vice president, so I threw my name in to complete his term as president.

So, no crazy politics or infighting.

It became official (at our) board meeting on Oct. 13, but tonight I get sworn in.

Yellowknifer: What's your plan now that you're president of the chamber?

McLeod: This is my third year on the board. In the last couple of years that I've been involved, and a couple of years before that, the board's focus has really been on getting itself out of debt.

It's been difficult to work on the things that we're supposed to work on when we're so focused on getting out of that situation.

Yellowknifer: Now that the chamber is out of debt, what are the issues you'll be tackling?

McLeod: Right off the bat, we want to sort of relaunch ourselves, explain to our existing membership why it's good to be a member of the chamber and at the same time get some feedback from them, from the grassroots to see what the issues are that they're facing that as a chamber we can work on collectively to try and find some resolution...

There is a higher cost of living in the North. It's not as bad in Yellowknife as in some of the outlying communities, but we have difficulty attracting staff here because of the perception that it's extremely expensive to live in Yellowknife.

Yellowknifer: Diavik recently announced it has reinstated Edmonton as pick-up point for workers, partly because it had difficulty attracting southerners who cited the cost of living as a barrier to moving up here.

McLeod: It's that, and it's not enough housing. There's a whole myriad reasons why. Cost of living is one thing, and what that translates into for my business is we have higher operating costs as well, so it's harder for us to be competitive against our competitors who are based in provinces with lower overhead. They can bid on the same work as us with lower costs and we lose work as a result of it.

Yellowknifer: What can the chamber do to combat this problem?

McLeod: A couple of years ago we flagged this issue to the government, and since then – I don't know if this is a result of our lobbying – but they've recently launched the Make Your Mark Campaign.

I think it's a really good idea. The more people you can attract, of course, it generates more revenue for the government not only in terms of transfer payments from the federal government ... but it also generates more revenue for municipal government – a bigger tax base.

Really the way I would like to operate is with the government and other non-government organizations to promote good programs like that....

I think the Make Your Mark campaign is a good start, but it needs to get out there more because, really, I hadn't heard of it until last week or the week before.

Yellowknifer: Aside from the high cost of living and attracting staff, what other issues are on your radar?

McLeod: A lot of things are centred around cost. The things that I think are coming are electrical rates. I hear that's going to be rolled out soon, so we're going to have to be prepared to look at that.

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