The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce Policy Committee met to discuss your request for input on the proposed Business Regulations Pertaining to Noise and/or Odour.

We are familiar with the proposed regulation through attendance at Council Meetings where the proposal was presented and reviewing the Report from G.A Jackson, Director of Community Planning.

Our 2010 Annual General Meeting was hosted at The Beach Club Resort. President Gary Child laid out the goals for the coming year, and a new Board of Directors was elected. The Executive and Board members in attendance were sworn in by M.L.A. Ron Cantelon.

The BC Provincial Government have introduced a Harmonized Sales Tax to come into effect on July 1, 2010, and there has been a significant response from members of the Parksville and District Chamber of Commerce regarding the impact of this tax on their businesses .

While the HST is being fully supported by the BC Chamber of Commerce, the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce recognizes that the HST will have a negative impact for some of our members. We believe it will have a detrimental effect on our primarily service based economy. The price of service provided will increase for the consumer and our demographic will not easily support this increase; creating a negative impact for our business members.

Introduction

Protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your information – over the Internet, on the telephone, or through our offices – has always been fundamental to the way we do business at the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce. We operate on the basis of a Privacy Policy and related procedures that guide the handling of the personal information we collect. We have created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our organization’s commitment to protecting the privacy of our members, partners and potential Web site visitors.

Privacy Statement

This policy deals only with personal information handled by the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce. Personal information is information about an identifiable individual, excluding business contact information. The following explains how the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce handles personal information. Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce reserves the right to change this policy and it may be updated periodically. These changes may affect our use of your personal information. Accordingly, please check for changes regularly.

It has become apparent that there is a significant issue in obtaining timely local government approvals on Development Permits. We also believe that, with no source of recourse, local governments have the opportunity to withhold approvals until the applicant agrees to take on costs that may or may not be related to the specific project application.

The process for the application of Development Permits varies dramatically between Local Governments across the province. These variances cause confusion for the applicant and result in additional costs due to the uncertainty of the process.

As the provincial economy faces significant new challenges chambers of commerce will play an increasingly important role in ensuring business is ready to face these challenges while also embracing new opportunities.

The success of our policy development process was demonstrated during the last year with the Chamber continuing to drive the public policy agenda. On issues ranging from skills, taxation, energy, tourism, through to transportation and land use, no other organization advocates so successfully on such a wide range of issues as the Chamber.

Any review of the competitiveness of the province’s taxation regime must address the fact that small- and medium-sized businesses (SME’s) play a pivotal role in the provincial economy.  The Chamber has consistently been the leading voice calling for the recognition of the role played by SME’s in economic growth, job creation, regional and local development and social cohesion for communities across the province.

With this in mind, The Chamber believes that it is critical that the Provincial Government focus on SME’s as they develop their taxation plans.

The Board of Directors is elected annually by the membership at our April AGM. The Board of Directors determine policies and programs. The staff employed by the board is responsible for organizing and executing the Chamber of Commerce's programs and promoting policies. The Committees and Task Forces are volunteer committees consisting of members of the Chamber of Commerce committed to achieving what needs to be done. As the #1 business association in the community, we are the voice of business through our collective association.

Ongoing committees include Policy, Membership and Business Initiatives (includes Glassies, Golf Tournament, Street Market and Fantasy Auction task forces).