Lynda Moffat talked planes, trains and … politics at a recent St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
The president and CEO of the chamber updated members on the organization’s advocacy work in the past year, and reminded them that the chamber takes a lead role in making St. Albert “a vibrant community, a regional hub, and a role model.”
Highlights included aiding the growth of Villeneuve Airport, working on a future LRT extension into St. Albert, and advocating for business in the political realm, she said.
“Several times over the last two years we really have come in on the leveraging of opportunities.”
The chamber recently dismantled its Villeneuve Airport regional task force. The group started three years ago and advocated for the growth and development of the airport.
The airport since received an extended runway, an ILS system, which allows planes to land in poor visibility, and was dedicated as an alternate landing site for medevac services. Canadian Border Services also located a customs clearing centre at the airport. Villeneuve is now the second airport in the region to offer this service.
Moffat said the group’s advocacy work “and the success we were able to influence were quite remarkable.” The chamber plans to continue working with Edmonton airport authorities, Sturgeon County and St. Albert to ensure the community benefits from the airport.
A thorn in its side remains the city’s proposal to close parts of Villeneuve Road. The road is a direct connection between St. Albert and the airport and closing it “will be making it difficult for those coming into the airport to come straight into St. Albert to stay, to eat and to shop.”
She hopes that an airshow planned at the airport later this summer will not only benefit businesses in St. Albert, but also prove the importance of having a direct connection through Villeneuve Road.
The chamber will also continue to advocate for an LRT connection between Edmonton and St. Albert, said Moffat. A transportation master plan by the Capital Region Board shows the north of St. Albert as an important route. She added that public support for an LRT connection into the city is growing every year because it can “sufficiently move people in your community.”
On a political level, the chamber plans to hold a number of roundtable discussions with the city’s new MLA Marie Renaud in the coming months. Businesses worry about the proposed increase in minimum wage and the chamber wants to discuss these concerns with representatives of the new NDP government, said Moffat.
“We found that to be a very effective way of getting communication to government when we were working on the temporary foreign workers issue (last year),” she said. “Actually hearing from the business people of what was happening in their business and how this is harming them.”
Other initiatives meant to help businesses include the creation of a standing committee on aboriginal relations to grow the aboriginal workforce in the community, and to continue the chamber’s commitment to tourism services.
The chamber is now renegotiating its long-term agreement for the farmers’ market. It also hopes to build a new chamber building in the downtown, which would create more business and office space and likely spur more investment and traffic in the Perron District, she said.
Another major change coming up in the fall is a cap to the chamber’s board of directors from 18 to 11 members, and the elimination of its executive committee. The board was too large and the executive committee “seemed to take away the authority and participation of the other board members,” said Moffat.
The board will also meet monthly starting this fall. The chamber expects more decision-making will come from these changes and ensure the chamber “remains valued and relevant to the business community.”
