The Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce is committed to assisting our local businesses to succeed. We do this through advocacy on our member’s behalf. We are delighted to have this platform through the News Bulletin to inform our members and community about our initiatives.
One of our strategic goals is advocacy on behalf of our members. Our latest initiatives have been:
Mobile Business Licences – The chamber recently went before council to ask them to implement a program that will assist local businesses who live in Nanaimo but work in other communities.
You, as a local business, would continue to purchase your Nanaimo business licence but you would also have the option of purchasing a mobile business licence (MBL) that would allow you to conduct business in any other community that is involved in this program. This would mean that if you conduct business in Parksville, Port Alberni or Campbell River, you would only be required to purchase an MBL rather than purchase a business licence for each community.
Council has agreed to explore this opportunity with the other Island communities who have expressed an interest.
Budget Presentation to Council – The chamber went before council on behalf of our members to ensure that the business interests were represented. The chamber has also worked with the city to bring the commercial taxes down and the city staff, as of March 11, presented to council a plan to lower commercial taxes.
Vancouver Island/Gulf Island Accord – Founding organizer of an accord to co-ordinate a response to Island-specific issues such as B.C. Ferries and Fortis B.C. common natural gas rates.
We are much stronger with one voice to lobby government on Island issues.
Policy – The chamber has recently submitted two policies to the B.C. Chamber on succession planning and asset management as we recognize the implications to city’s budgets if they do not implement an asset management policy.
These issues will affect every community and business in B.C. as the financial implications are huge. We have also lobbied both the provincial and federal governments to assist with funding a pilot project for succession planning as well as made recommendations to government about changing some of their existing programs to assist with succession planning.
If you have any questions, or are interested in hearing about more of our programs, please call 250-756-1191.
