Westlock could soon have its own association to support and protect the interests of businesses in the area.
An exploratory meeting to determine if there is enough support to restart a chamber of commerce in Westlock and whether it will be viable will take place Jan. 24 in the meeting room at the Ramada starting at 6 p.m.
Nicolas Brown has been working to get the project off the ground for a year.
The previous Westlock Chamber of Commerce folded roughly five years ago due to lack of interest.
“I noticed there’s not a lot of opportunities to network professionally. There’s lots of opportunities to get involved in the community, lots of volunteer opportunities, lots of opportunities to help out with local causes, but there’s no real business organization in town except for the Rotary,” he said, adding that Rotary’s lunch-time meetings make it difficult for some to attend.
“It seems that there’s no real unified voice for businesses.”
Aside from the ample networking opportunities, there are a number of other benefits an organization could provide to businesses large and small.
Through information sharing, special events, training and value-added incentives for members the chamber would provide opportunities for economic growth and development in the district, said Brown. This in turn would help make Westlock a profitable and innovative community in which to do business.
Membership in the Alberta and Canadian chambers of commerce also provides access to group chamber benefits involving insurance, payment processing and shipping, among others.
He doesn’t expect the process to be easy and recognizes there will be challenges and membership will be one of them.
“There’s a really good opportunity here if there’s enough buy-in,” he said.
Brown hopes to begin with at least a 25 per cent buy-in from the business community, which would require 138 businesses to express an interest to join. That’s the number he’s been working with while preparing budgets.
“My base number on membership was 138, which I thought would be reasonable, 25 per cent of the estimated number of corporations in the region based on Stats Canada data,” said Brown.
“I would consider it successful if we had a much higher buy-in than 25 per cent.”
There is another significant challenge in that a portion of the proposed membership area, which would follow the boundaries of Westlock County, is considered part of the Morinville and District Chamber of Commerce under the Board of Trade Act. This can only be resolved with the cooperation of the Morinville organization.
“It’s a project that I really wanted to do and I’m glad it’s coming to the point where whether it succeeds or not, it’s going to wrap up,” said Brown.
Interested businesses can contact [email protected] for an information package.
