Policy Success Noted by Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors
Successful advocacy on issues that are important to our members frequently take many years of commitment, exemplified by two policies first adopted by our Chamber Board in 2012 and 2013, which were recently marked as successful completions.
Within the Chamber’s air service policy, the chamber first started advocating for competition to increase choice and better pricing for air travelers out of our regional airport in 2012. This past year saw needed repairs and updates to our airport and last spring a new carrier arrived in our community to provide a second airline and healthy competition to the market place. This new service fulfilled our recommendation of better connection times and increased load capacity for travelers in south east Alberta and south west Saskatchewan in our policy recommendations. Business and leisure travel is now conveniently available to Medicine Hat, which has improved the quality of life of citizens.
Another way in which we advocated to positively impact the community was through our Municipal Engagement policy adopted in 2013. Through this policy, the chamber advocated for the City of Medicine Hat to institute a framework where the public would be able to influence and contribute to the decisions that were being made by City administration and Council. The recommendations in our policy stressed inclusive planning, transparency, authenticity, accessible participation and communicating the findings and feedback from the community. This past summer City Council approved a Public Participation Policy that included many of our recommendations recognizing the importance of creating appropriate opportunities for the public to be involved in the decisions that govern life in Medicine Hat.
By fostering a constructive working relationship with the City of Medicine Hat, the Chamber is able to conduct conversations that influence the decisions of policy makers, resulting in positive impacts to services and overall quality of life within Medicine Hat.
Our advocacy efforts are successful because they are founded in respectful dialogue. We are a solutions based organization and our objective, when it comes to trying to influence the direction of any government, is based on positive, open minded and results driven conversations. We are dedicated to ensuring that we bring a positive and collaborative presence to the table in order to best serve not only our members but all those who live in our region.
To read our current and completed policies and recommendations, visit the advocacy page on our website here: https://medicinehatchamber.com/pages/Advocacy