Acadian Chamber choses finalists for awards
Businesspeople to be acknowledged at special event in Summerside this March
SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. - Fourteen candidates will vye for six Entrepreneurial Awards of Excellence from the Acadian and Francophone Chamber of Commerce of P.E.I. (CCAFLIPE) at its 2020 Entrepreneurs' Gala March 14 at the Centre BelleAlliance in Summerside. CCAFLIPE spokesperson Pierre Gallant announced the names of the finalists during the Chamber’s Christmas celebration Friday, Dec. 6, in the very room where the gala will take place.
“The challenge this year was not the number of applications, because we received 21 of them.
The problem was that the applications were not well distributed among the categories,” he said.
“In one category, we have only one candidate; in another category, we have eight! And unfortunately, we can only keep a maximum of three finalists per category, which means that some well-deserving candidates regrettably had to be eliminated.”
Gallant indicated that the quality of the submissions was excellent and that, in several circumstances, scores were extremely tight.
Gallant announced Marcel and Gérard Arsenault of Deva Forestry/The Branch Manager of Abram-Village and Summerside and Patrick Villeneuve of Mermaid Marine Products in Charlottetown will compete for the prestigious Acadian and Francophone Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame Award.
In addition to winning the trophy, the winner(s) will be permanently inducted into the new Hall of Fame, which will be erected on a wall of the Wellington Rural Action Centre (with the 17 winners of the Chamber’s former Distinguished Entrepreneur Award).
The new distinction is essentially a lifetime achievement award, which recognizes the economic contribution of an entrepreneur over his entire career. The CCAFLPE reserves the right to make special presentations, during its annual Gala, to individuals, organizations or events that have made significant contributions to the economy but do not necessarily fall within the competition's prize categories. “You can expect such a special presentation at the Gala next March,” said Gallant.