What happens when you have an issue in your business that you just can’t figure out? 

You might go talk to your accountant or lawyer, or maybe you’ll go see a business coach if the issue is internal. But what if that issue is something that government is doing? What if there is so much red tape that something that should take you 1 hour is taking a full week? What if it’s taking you months? What if it’s costing you thousands of dollars? Hundreds of thousands?

That’s where the Chamber policy team comes in. 

Ultimately the government might mean well, but they are often making decisions about something they have very little practical understanding about. They may have had conversations, but anyone who runs a business knows that a conversation is no substitute for living it. Not to mention there are often a lot of opposing perspectives that should be considered to come to the best decision. So naturally, the government is going to get some things wrong.

What happens next? 

As a grassroots organization, we are driven by our members. So when a member has a situation where government is harming their ability to do business, they can come to us. They fill out a Business Advocacy Submission Form where they let us know what the issue is and what they think should be done about it. We will gather our members and discuss the issue to determine what the next best steps are. From there, staff will write a policy recommending that government (whether that’s municipal, provincial, or federal) make a very specific change to address the identified issue.

Okay, we have a policy, now what? 

Once we have a policy that has been approved by the board, it’s time to start advocating for that policy. That means we work to get meetings with the right people in government and state our case. We make a compelling argument and do everything we can to get government to adjust their policy to address the issues and solutions we’ve identified.

And that’s the process.

It doesn’t always go smoothly, but we will often see government address the issues we’ve brought up in some way. Ultimately, it’s always going to be worth it if we can help business do business better.