Summer is almost over ......

The Chamber Nine and Dine  Connect held at Rolling Green Golf Club was well attended and lots of fun. The most "fives" award was presented by Chamber marketing coordinator, Serena,  to our Chamber president, Leana Ross and her team mates Melinda Haggert from the Health Foundation and Victoria McLean from  Synergy Credit Union. We couldn't have asked for better weather, sunny & warm with a slight breeze to keep the mosquitoes away. A beef on a bun supper was enjoyed after the nine hole Texas scramble event.

Chamber Finance Executive, Elaine Lawrence was in fine form and just missed winning the longest drive.

The Chuckwagons are in town and the Chamber staff got into the spirit and dressed western for the week. Check out the painted windows at the office welcoming the drivers and fans to town. Streetscapes also painted up a window downtown on the Border Paint store. It's great to see our members getting involved in this huge revenue booster for our City businesses. Good luck to all of the drivers for a successful and safe meet.

Our Chamber is teaming up with Alberta Works to provide a job fair opportunity for our members. Oct 11 is the date for the job fair in Lloydminster. We are advertising outside our region in the hopes of attracting job seekers from other provinces. Wainwright is holding their job fair on Oct. 4 so perhaps with the two fairs happening close together, we may have luck attracting from afar. Be sure to call the office and sign up your booth, Only 50 spaces available. Check the Chamber website at www.lloydminsterchamber.com for more info.  

That's it for this time ....
Pat

Treaty Six Flag Raising

Chamber Board Member, Rob Saunders joins the dignitaries at the Treaty
6 Flag Raising Ceremony at City Hall today.

Chief Wallace Fox & Mayor Jeff Mulligan
lead the procession of dignitaries at the
Treaty 6 Ceremony.

Busy, rainy days of summer.....

Harvesting a Major Win 

The decades-long monopoly of the Canadian Wheat Board comes to an end Aug. 1 with the enactment of the Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act. This legislation fulfils an Alberta Chamber of Commerce (ACC) policy, which arose out of Red Deer in 2001. The winds of change have been blowing in Alberta's agri-business in preparation for the 2012 harvest. The new act means western farmers will, for the first time, gain the opportunity to sell their own grain crops, as befitting business people who market internationally. It also plows the way for greater value-added and investment opportunities in an open-market system. Brad Severin, ACC Policy Chair    
As a Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce member, our members are also members of the Alberta Chamber. Your local Chamber sits on the ACC policy committee and has input into the policy development and adoption of the Alberta policy resolutions. The above policy resolution which was taken to the policy debate of the Canadian Chamber by the Alberta Chamber, and adopted there, and subsequently taken to the Canadian government,and  is just one more way that your Chamber membership works for you. 

Over 40 Executive Directors of Alberta Chambers of Commerce met in Brooks last week for their annual professional development summit. This is a great opportunity to learn from one another as well as from the professional speakers. It was just one year ago that the Alberta Chamber Executives were in Lloydminster learning from our local professionals and getting to know our City better. I enjoy this time of networking and fun & supportive camaraderie with my colleagues from across Alberta & Saskatchewan. 

Northern Gateway -- CALL TO ACTION  On Monday, our members will receive a Call to Action advocacy package designed to assist chamber members interested in writing Letters of Comment to the Joint Review Panel, which is seeking public input on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project. The deadline for the Letters of Comment is Aug. 31.  I encourage members to provide comment on this project as it is viewed as critical to Alberta's sustained economic success because it will diversify our markets for crude oil. This advocacy thrust is based on the ACC recently adopted policy, Northern Gateway Pipelines Project.  Our float entry in the parade was very well done thanks to our awesome staff and board members. I missed the parade once again due to the ACE conference, however I heard that the parade was colorful and interesting, the two breakfasts held by Leckie & Associates and City of Lloydminster/NewCap were delicious and the Lloyd Ex did their usual bang up job of hosting record crowds at the fair. When I am away from our City and visiting with folks from other municipalities, I fully appreciate what we have here ... a forward thinking city council and administration, hardworking and progressive organizations, honest and integral business leaders and friendly and helpful people. Who would want to live or run a business anywhere else? I have been busy this week, along with Karin, our resident photographer, visiting with and taking pictures for our Business Awards presentation. It has been interesting and fun meeting with nominees and getting a tour of their business or organization. I hope that everyone will come out and celebrate with us in October during business week when we showcase our nominated businesses and announce the recipients of the Business awards.    New West Partnership blows in more benefits for business  Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan have launched a new streamlined system of business registration. As of July 1, businesses only have to register in one of the provinces to operate in each province. The system was created under the New West Partnership, which is a venture among the three provinces to eliminate barriers to trade. ACC's longstanding policy, Elimination on Interprovincial Trade Barriers, seeks this kind of collaboration.   Till next time ....... Pat

Congratulations to the Lloydminster Handivan Society and RE/MAX of Lloydminster on their partnership to provide wheel chair accessible transportation services to our community. Transportation services have become increasingly important as our city grows and prospers. It is great to see one of our Chamber members applying an interesting marketing opportunity  in partnership with a long standing community organization like the Handivan Society to provide for this essential service. 

What a great time we had at the Lloyd Ex last Thursday when they hosted the June noon hour Connect. Corinne and Mike updated everyone on the upcoming Lloydminster Exhibition and great food and "fair" games were enjoyed by those in attendance. Our fearless leader, President Leana Ross, takes a lesson in wild cow milking. 






The Community Leaders Group met with the  Honorable Tim McMillan and newly elected MLA Richard Starke last week. A good discussions was held about several areas of interest to our community. 

Be sure to watch for the Chamber of Commerce and the Streetscapes Co float entry in the parade next week.

I will have to miss the parade again this year as our Alberta Chamber Executive Director's professional development summit is held those days in Brooks.

Till next time......
Pat

Busy time at the Chamber ....

The Chamber had their "spin to win" booth in the very busy and successful Downtown Streetfest on June 9th. If you answered a question about the Chamber correctly you won a prize.  The local talent that was showcased at the festival main stage was fantastic. Our region has some wonderful bands, singers &  dancers. The fashion show was enjoyed by all and the food booths, children's games and farmer's market was a real hit. The SPCA booth with some of their animals who are looking for there forever homes was very popular with the children.
Congratulations to the Streetfest committee for another great downtown event.

Congratulations to the organizers of the Downtown Street dance, celebrating the beginning of summer, that was held on Friday night. I've heard from a few people who attended that it was a great event. All of these events held in the downtown will only help to make people aware of the very interesting downtown in Lloydminster.

Our Chamber Connect held at the Travel Alberta Centre last Wednesday was well attended with some really great door prizes provided by many of the attractions around Alberta. Jordyn, Justin, Jill and Travis , our Travel Alberta VIC staff were on hand to welcome visitors and answer questions about Alberta.

I joined President, Leana Ross and Board member Rob Saunders at the 100th Anniversary of ATCO Gas providing services to Alberta, held at the Sales Pavilion on the Exhibition Grounds last night.  Local manager, Ron Paskevich and his staff did a great job of providing barbecue hot dogs and burgers along with Blue Flame kitchen lemonade. The ATCO Gas entertainers did an interesting and entertaining job of providing the history of ATCO Gas through music, dance and song.  Congratulations to ATCO Gas on this milestone.

We still have one opening for a summer student to work for six weeks during July & August helping with clean-up in the downtown. If you know someone who might be interested, please ask them to give me a call. They must have completed grade 11 to be eligible.



Till next time .....

Pat

Rob Saunders congratulates incoming
ACC board chair, Tab Pollock. 

The past two weeks have been busy with the annual Provincial Chamber Conferences. The Alberta AGM & Policy Session was held in Sherwood Park and attended by myself and board member and city liaison, Rob Saunders. Our policy resolution on Physician Licensing in Alberta sparked lively debate and a commitment from several other Chambers in the province to work with the Lloydminster Chamber to write a comprehensive policy resolution covering the licensing of medical professionals who are utilized to their full scope of practice. This work will begin over the summer and will be presented at next years policy session.

The Saskatchewan Chamber Conference on Business was held in Saskatoon. Two policy resolutions were presented. Photo Speed Enforcement as well as the resolution on Licensing Doctors in Saskatchewan. A local businessman, Daryl Howell was also elected to the Saskatchewan Chamber Board of Directors.

This morning I was on hand to help register golfers for the 20th annual Chamber of Commerce golf tournament. Over 144 golfers took to the course for a beautiful sunny day of fun and fellowship The day kicked off with champagne orange juice provided by Chatters Hair Salon and breakfast compliments of Cliff Rose for Clothes and JDG Construction. . Marya Pettigrew from the Lloydminster Business Accelerator was on hand with a "beat the pro" contest and the Drug Strategy committee promoted their marshmallow drive contest. Tim Dyck and Staff from Chambers Group Insurance Plan, the title sponsor of the tournament, were busy cooking up smokies and burgers at the fairway barbecue. It looked to me like everyone was having a great time.

Congratulations to the City of Lloydminster for putting together a successful bid for the Scotia Bank Hockey Day in Canada. This will be an exciting event for our City in 2013.

Till next time ........
Pat

Community working together .....

I was pleased to be part of a group of Lloydminster Public School Division staff and community stakeholders yesterday for the annual LPSD strategic planning session. The room was full of dedicated staff from teachers, principals, students,  central office staff to bus drivers, custodians and parents/caregivers. Joining in for the day were leaders from all community sectors. It was an opportunity to look at and celebrate all of the excellent work that has been done over the past couple of years towards the goal of providing educational excellence for all students, and there is much to celebrate indeed. A stable funding structure will ensure that all students in Lloydminster no matter if they reside in Alberta or Saskatchewan, will receive the same level of educational services. This has taken a lot of hard work by  LPSD board and staff as well as the City of Lloydminster and  the provincial governments. Although there are still areas that need work, we can be very proud of our LPSD.

Once again this year, the Lloydminster Drug Strategy Committee and the Lloydminster Community Youth Center will be holding their Marshmallow Drive at the Chamber Golf Tournament on May 29. This is always a fun and popular game with the funds raised going to a great cause.   In addition, the Lloydminster Business Acceleration will have a "Beat the Chairman of the Board" game on the putting green. In case you don't know, Bob Mottram, is the Chair of the Business Accelerator board. They will have some give-away's and you will be able to learn more about this new and important organization in our community. Early bird registration deadline is Monday, May 7th so don't delay, get your registration in right away.
2012 REGISTRATION FORM 

I will be off to the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce 'Conference on Business' and AGM and Policy Debate next week in Saskatoon. We have two policy resolutions going forward. One on "Addressing the Difficulty involved in Obtaining a License/Permit for Physicians in Saskatchewan"  and the other on "Photo Radar Speed Enforcement". If these are approved at the Saskatchewan Chamber level,  they will be taken forward to government by the Saskatchewan Chamber.

A reminder about the Guide The Future project that is being lead by Dabir Naqvi. I hope that you will take a minute to have a look at the website developed by the students at Lakeland College and do the quick two question survey that is on the website. www.guidethefuture.net

Till next time ......
Pat