Speaker: Ian McLean, President of the KW Chamber of Commerce, who will be speaking about Business Reopening with COVID protocols.
Announcements:
Our next scheduled meeting is Wed Oct 20th and we are planning an in-person meeting at Hospice of Waterloo Region’s new offices, where there will be a tour of the building and an opportunity to see the room that was named for the support received from the Kitchener Westmount Rotary Club. The meeting space at Hospice will hold 25 – 30 people with all proper distancing protocols and there is a requirement that everyone coming into the building be double vaccinated for the safety of the clients, staff and volunteers. This will be a hybrid meeting with a zoom connection for those who are not able to attend in person.
Look for a follow up email for registration to attend and selection of the boxed lunch options for this meeting.
Birthdays: Oct 6th for both Mac Graham and Klara Serjani, Oct 10th for John Thompson
Wedding Anniversaries: Oct 1st is 16 years for Brandon and Liz Flewwelling, Oct 6th is 59 years for Chuck and Anne Thompson
Club Anniversaries: Oct 10th is 20 years of Rotary service for both Larry Masseo and Ed Simon
Club Dues: Further to the poll and survey that was send out earlier this year, there was a majority that were in favour of making some changes to the club dues for the remainder of this year. We will be moving everyone to "Pay As You Go" for any meeting meals when we have in person meetings and we will be increasing the dues for the regular members, adding a small amount quarterly to provide some funding for club activities this year. There will be no change in dues for the senior active members. The board has now approved our operating budget for this year and I will present the budget to the club at our Oct 20th meeting. Thank you to everyone for your feedback. If you have any questions, please just let me know.
Flag program for Remembrance Day- Brad Enns will be in touch with installers shortly.
Mac is setting up an online store for Rotary Swag: fitted baseball caps, jackets and golf shirts
Speaker:
Ian McLean, President of the KW Chamber of Commerce, who will be speaking about Business Reopening with COVID protocols.
1600 chamber members across the region
Ian has 11 years at the Chamber
18 months of Covid- great impact on people, businesses and the world
Ian’s father was a Rotarian and Paul Harris Fellow
Grateful to Rotary for building and supporting KidsAbility
The Chamber depends on volunteers to help the community
The Chamber is open to anyone in the regions business community
What comes after the pandemic? Need to grow the economy and continue to provide services and programs.
1600 members cover everything from small to big business in a variety of industries
60% of members would have 10 employees or less
Vast majority are small to med size business
Understand importance of large business
Priorities regardless of pandemic: advocate to all levels of government regarding competitive operating environments. Also try and make sure the region is cost competitive to maintain jobs and economic wealth. Chamber must be mindful of that and bring to all levels of government
Pandemic has been difficult for the region: small businesses who cannot fully reopen. Financial and emotional strain on businesses and customers.
The region has been known for spirit of collaboration and that did not change in the pandemic
March 2020- Prosperity Council has morphed into the Business Economic Support Team
Learned early on the region needed to come together to work on pushing the province to implement a mask mandate, and lobbying for increased financial support for small businesses
Still continuing work with pushing governments to implement tools that are needed to keep the region open: tests, disinfectant, safety plans
Looking towards recovery- what are future issues: rising dept levels, continued support to get things fully reopened
Vocal around vaccinations- vaccine and verification
Push on small business grant with government/province
Started first rapid screening distribution program in Canada in the workplace
Encouraged government to use the regions blueprint- Canada is now using KWs programing
Hoping to fully reopen up in March or April 2022 : goal to get to an endemic
Rapid Screening program: Chamber delivers rapid testing to businesses. Distributed to over 5000 businesses in the region- getting close to 700K kits distributed in the region.
Over 300k masks distributed (donated by Eclipse Automation)
Region continues to reinvent itself and evolve as a community
As we get past the health crisis we will see an economic recovery need- will need to be driven by the private sector. Get our fiscal house back in order.
Highway 7 to Guelph is back on track- in the budget plan. Importance to keep us connected
All Day 2 Way Go- over 1billion dollars into upgrades and investment to connecting the region to Toronto is underway
Talent recruiting in every sector is important- currently gaps in almost every sector right now in the region. A lot of work to be done to get talent into the region. Recruiting will rely on immigration. How to welcome and provide a sense of belonging.
Health care has brought into focus the family physician healthcare program. 44K did not have access to a family doctor over 11 years ago. Closer to 25K now. Program to attract and retain doctors.
The Chamber needs to continue to gather community leaders and volunteers to keep moving forward in a positive way
Healthy business community= healthy overall community
Questions:
Mac Graham- Rapid tests, how are they deployed? How to fill employment gaps and reduce brain drain from Universities?
Rapid screening are not PCR tests- they’re called Serial Rapid Screening. The accuracy of the kits are very high. Recommend 3 times per week. It is a nasal swab that is very easy to use for self-use. Video on the chamber website on how to use. Will find 3-5% of the virus. Businesses can register with the Chamber for the kits and they are expected to go pick them up.
Encourage kids to do co-ops and engage in the community during their education. Need to do more of getting the students out into the business community.
Todd Aitchison- Why did the province take away the rapid tests from Communitech that were providing to parents? Is the Chamber lobbying to get tests back into parents hands?
Chamber was lobbying back in the spring to get everyone ready for Sept back in class- how do you get families ready for back to school? The community cannot handle another lockdown. Lobbying to find out why the province wont give tests to families. 47 million screening kits procured by the federal government. The Chambers program was specifically for business. Communitech moved to more of a community program. This choice was impacting the rest of the province. The Chamber is pushing the government to provide testing to parents.
