Peterborough Chamber: A decade of advocacy

The transition to a new decade lends itself to reflection. The Peterborough Chamber of Commerce has had an active policy committee since, well, before the turn of the century. In fact, advocacy and making sure things "turn out right" is one of the founding principles of this chamber. This committee is comprised of knowledgeable and dedicated Chamber members who offer feedback on the issues of the day and how to approach areas of concern to our membership. And the decade of the 2010's was no different. We believe it's worth a scan of some of the topics that were discussed and continue to be discussed with regard to our Peterborough business community. If you would like to know more about any on the list, don't hesitate to reach out. peterboroughchamber.ca A Decade of Advocacy 1. Train to Peterborough 2. Keeping Students in the Community 3. Prosperity Roundtable & Scorecard (key stakeholders brought together to take the temperature and progress of the Vision 20/20 document) 4. 407 Extension/Completion 5. Federal/Provincial/Municipal Election Information Hubs 6. Surveys on Urban Park (City of Peterborough), City Police Budget, Shopping on Statutory Holidays, Casino location, Bill 148, and more. 7. Municipal issues such as tax ratio reduction program, business licence by-law, electric sign by-law, Little Lake master plan, interest arbitration, and more. 8. Provincial issues such as Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, Minimum Wage, Source Water Protection Act, Waste Diversion, College of Trades, and more. 9. Federal issues such as corporate taxes, steel tariffs, temporary foreign workers, credit card fees, and more. 10. Roundtables on mental health, co-ordinating with city and county building and planning departments, political leaders, tourism, minimum wage, immigration, official plans, and more. 11. Policy Resolutions on addressing healthcare bottlenecks, social innovation, succession planning, federal pension plan, apprenticeship system, small business red tape, alcohol spirits, heads & beds levy, Energy East, the digital tax divide, cybercrime, and more. 12. Annual Policy Report Card created to capture yearly policy and advocacy issues. These can be found at peterboroughchamber.ca