The Thompson Chamber of Commerce elected executive members and spoke to the mayor regarding city operations and projects at their annual general meeting, held virtually March 16.
Dennis Green continues as president, with Ethel Timbang elected vice-president, Sandy Hayes as secretary and Volker Beckmann as a director. Raj Thethy also continues to serve on the executive as past president. The treasurer position, vacated by Mike Lawson, currently remains open.
Green said the chamber ended 2021 with 143 members, a decrease of three from the previous year as a result of 11 businesses leaving and eight new ones joining. He also lauded the success of the chamber’s Shop Local program in November, when they used a $20,000 grant to purchase gift cards from 96 local businesses that were given away.
“I know that people are still utilizing those services,” said Green. “I’m very glad to be a part of that.”
The chamber had a net income of about $382 on revenues of about $71,500.
The organization has also withdrawn its membership from the Board of Trade and registered as a non-profit corporation. The change was made because Board of Trade members are required to have an external audit done. Lawson explained that the move was made not to avoid audits but to prevent the spending of membership fees on the potentially expensive service.
Chamber bylaws were also amended to lower the number of board members from 11 to seven, reducing the number needed to obtain quorum from seven to four.
“We desperately do need some fresh blood coming in and we are hopeful to be able to take some executive decisions that will help us this year,” said Thethy.
After Mayor Colleen Smook completed the swearing in of the executive and directors, meeting participants questioned her about some recent changes the city has made as well as ongoing and upcoming projects in Thompson.
Lawson said it was a challenge to schedule meetings between the city and chamber last year.
“I hope that the city will sit down with the chamber and vice-versa and talk about some of the issues that have been going on for the past year,” he said.
As a former community representative on the city’s now defunct legislative and finance committee, Lawson said he was disappointed that there is currently no citizen participation in the committee of the whole, which includes all members of council.
“You’re now cramming five or six different committees into two or three hours,” he said. “I sure hope the city goes back to having some sort of community involvement on that committee.”
The mayor said she hopes a way for people other than council members to contribute to committee proceedings can be devised.
“There’s always a learning experience of wherever we can involve the public now and make sure that we keep you involved,” Smook said. “We definitely appreciate all the work that our committees have done in the past and definitely try to keep the people of Thompson committed to helping us.”
Smook said the provincial government’s rehabilitation of the Miles Hart Bridge over the Burntwood River, first announced in 2017, is scheduled to finally begin this year. The process will see one lane redone this year and the other next year and, when finished, the bridge will be wider and include fencing to prevent people from trying to jump off it.
Council held a budget meeting March 15 with another scheduled for next week.
“We’ve been basically hammering out what we can afford, what we can’t do, recognizing that we haven’t even got final numbers on the RCMP cost,” she said. “It’s not looking for too much of a change in the end result this year.”
Asked about possible replacement or renovation of the Norplex Pool, which was permanently shut down in February 2019, Smook said the city is waiting on other levels of government for answers to some questions.
The chamber will continue to hold virtual meetings for members once a month for now, Green said, and hopes to resume in-person meetings soon.
