The CEO and president of the St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce is taking representation of Alberta’s business community to the next level.
In September, Lynda Moffat was selected president of the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Canada (CCEC), a position that also appointed her a director on the board of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Moffat is now looking to use her one-year term to promote Canadian business, and to bring Alberta-specific issues back to the table, she said.
“I’d like to make sure that the voice of our area and particularly of our province is heard,” she said.
“I am very happy that we have a seat on that board for this year and I think we’ll be able to use that to help bring awareness at the very least of business issues and to work together with all of the different board members from across Canada.”
Moffat said the CCEC’s goal is to provide professional development for chamber executives and to share best practices and program information from chambers across Canada.
In the coming year, the Canadian chamber will focus on making Canadian business more globally competitive, she said.
The chamber will also continue to work with post-secondary institutions, to motivate and provide students with the knowledge necessary to start a business out of university, she said.
Both of these topics relate closely to the Alberta economy, she said.
“The global competitiveness issues are very important and particularly important in Alberta because of our challenge in getting our products to foreign markets,” she said.
Moffat said many of the businesses seated on the board are large, national companies.
That sometimes makes it easy to lose sight of the grassroots of the chamber of commerce, which consists of hundreds of small communities and businesses, she said.
She sees her role on the board as keeping the chamber “grounded” by reminding other executives the many small businesses and people in Canada also drive a large part of this nation’s economy, she said.
She expects that Alberta’s labour shortage and the temporary foreign worker issue will continue to be contentious issues. But they will also discuss topics as related to finance, environment, energy and the arts, she said.
“I love having that role when you have CN and major financial institutions with representatives in there,” she said.
“It’s quite a great opportunity to be able to remind them that everything they are doing right now is influencing all of these business people in their efforts.”
Moffat said her term will not affect her role as president and CEO of the St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce. Her board is very supportive of her work, and her staff is well trained in the chamber’s day-to-day operations, she said.
She also expects that her role on the board and meetings with many of the bigger players in the economy will return valuable experience and knowledge to St. Albert’s business community.
Already, the community benefits, she said.
“We have the name of St. Albert out there now, everywhere,” she said. “You can’t buy that kind of coverage.”
