A successful Canadian Chamber of Commerce conference in Saint John, New Brunswick for the Kamloops delegation this past weekend.

Chamber Executive Director Acacia Pangilinan says there were lots of discussions about economic and political issues that affect Canadian businesses.

“Some ideas around advocacy and government relations, some of the Chambers have unique ideas on how to bring out the issues from their memberships,” she said. “So we’re going to discuss as a team which ones will work will work best for us and probably pilot some new initiatives in 2020.”

Pangilinan says that could include some new events and refreshing some of the Chamber’s current events in Kamloops.

“I learned about a new event series out of Halifax that is geared towards creating a positive working environment for women in the workplace,” she added. “I also learned from my peers in Peterborough about an event where they engage their elected officials. I know that our team is really looking forward to looking at those ideas in the planning for 2020.”

And while both of the Kamloops Chamber policy submissions did not pass, Pangilinan is staying positive saying they may tweak the resolutions slightly and try again at a future conference.

“So the one policy was in regards to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and the regulations that they have to say what is good product to leave Canada,” Pangilinan said. “And then the second one was our Belt and Road initiative, and I think to be quite fair, due to the political nature of China right now, I think that there was an appetite to stay away from something that could be deemed so controversial.”

There were around 320 Chambers of Commerce Executives and business leaders gathered to discuss various issues, and Pangilinan, who is still fairly new in her role in Kamloops, says she was grateful for the learning opportunity.