Fulfilling a campaign promise and hoping to kickstart a new era of business cooperation in Irricana, recently elected councillors Julie Sim and Nathaniel Fleming hosted a preliminary meeting on the feasibility of establishing a new chamber of commerce in the community on June 12.
“I was really happy with the people who showed,” Sim told the Rocky View Weekly after the event. “I was really happy with the energy and the fact it was really positive. I am very excited about going forward.”
While only six people attended the first meeting, Sim said many more local business owners have expressed interest in starting a local chamber through social media and through personal communications with her and Fleming. Bolstered by that show of enthusiasm, Sim – a first-term Town council member who was elected in a byelection last year – is planning a second meeting in August to lay out the specifics of how a chamber would work and operate in the community.
“We are taking it slow and making sure we are doing all the right steps,” she explained. “And I think it is going to be great. I really do.”
Sim said one potential snag arose in the first meeting that will also have to be addressed before the next meeting in August.
“That has to with the Airdrie borders on their chamber of commerce,” she explained. “The way that looks like is the maps they have show it comes very close to Irricana; so we are investigating that.”
However even if it does prove to be the case that the Airdrie Chamber of Commerce has jurisdiction in Irricana, Sim said it would not deter locals from starting up something of their own.
“There is a way to go as an umbrella underneath Airdrie, but that (border) question has to be answered before we really do anything,” Sim said.
What Sim hopes to focus on even more closely during the next chamber meeting in August, outside of the boundary question, is defining what the business culture of Irricana is, and what niche a potential chamber of commerce could fill to assist local businesses in the future.
Sim said one idea that came out of the brainstorming session on June 12 that she would like to explore more fully is the idea that businesses in Irricana have to more fully consider the commuter culture of the people who live in town.
“Irricana is primarily a commuter town,” she said. “So we have a unique position to hold. For example, I am a massage therapist. I know that most of the people commute into the cities. So my hours are from noon to 8 p.m. I can’t be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. like I would be in the city.”
Another idea introduced on June 12 that Sim would like to explore is how to mentor and support new businesses that wish to establish themselves in the Irricana area.
“We have a lot of businesses, but not a lot of storefronts,” she explained. “What came out of the meeting (on June 12) very clearly was that a lot of the new businesses have struggled with how to get started. We had a lot of business coming through that came and went because they didn’t understand the processes of how to get a business started (locally), and how to be successful.”
One final consensus idea which emerged from the brainstorming session on June 12, Sim said, was how to promote and make people aware of the many great businesses that are already serving Irricana and the surrounding district.
“Our main motivation was to grow the business centre here in Irricana, and to make more people aware there are (established) businesses here,” she confirmed.
