Labour shortage, North priorities for new chamber president
Nineteen years ago, James Cumming helped the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce hire Martin Salloum.
On Monday, the former real estate and construction executive replaced the retiring Salloum as chamber president and CEO.
“I was one of the people in the search committee that found Martin,” Cumming said.
“Martin and I have maintained a relationship of course over those 19 years and he’s done an exceptional job of rebuilding and putting it on a really strong footing, which gives me the luxury of working on growth strategies and great policy development.”
Cumming said priorities for the chamber remain diversifying the local economy, strengthening relationships with the Canadian North and addressing a shortage of labour for Edmonton employers.
“It is a huge issue for business in today’s economy, just the lack of available talent in our province, particularly with this robust economy,” Cumming said.
“Certainly, I’ve seen that through my experience in business. … There’s just an absence of skilled workers in our province with the kind of growth that we’ve had.”
Cumming, 52, is a lifelong Edmontonian who graduated from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology building construction technology program and went on to lead Creative Door Services, Courtenay Real Estate Services, Princeton Developments, and Cormode & Dickson Construction.
Cumming retired from Edmonton-based Creative Door Services as an owner and CEO in January.
“We had sold the company a year previous, so I had decided it was time to retire and look at doing some different things.”
He also chairs NAIT’s board of governors, serves on the Norlien Foundation board and was national chair for the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Canada.
In 1995, Cumming chaired the chamber, following in the footsteps of his father, Keith Cumming, who was board chair in 1971.