Vision 1 million - Are we ready?

Ian has held his current position with the Chamber since 2010 and also has served in a multitude of boards and committees within our local communities. The Chamber is a volunteer dependent organization that serves as the voice of the local business community and is one of 450 similar organizations across Canada. The roots of our Chamber go back to 1992 with the merger of the Kitchener and Waterloo Chambers which subsequently merged with the Woolwich Chamber in 2002. It represents businesses and employers and its over 1600 members are predominantly (over 80%) small businesses with 50 employees or less.

The Chamber plays an important advocacy role by working with all levels of government on issues related to taxation, business regulations, land supply, economic development and essential public services to ensure that that our community can be competitive with other communities as an attractive location for businesses to locate.

The COVID pandemic was obviously difficult for businesses with financial and economic strain and there continues to be some lingering effects on specific industries such as hospitality (which was first to close and last to reopen) due to changing customer habits and significant inflationary pressures. The Chamber's goal is to be part of the solution and act as a facilitator to recovery. As an example, during the heat of the pandemic, Chamber organizations across Canada were responsible for distribution of over 1 million rapid COVID tests to its members.

We are fortunate that our community has been able to continuously reinvent itself and adapt to changing times. Historical industry anchors in artisanal industries like textiles and rubber evolved into tire and auto parts manufacturing, alcohol production and insurance and now into advanced technologies including software, robotics and medical devices. The local economy, once centred around manufacturing, is now dominated by the service sector. This evolution is not due to good geography or luck but a mix of factors that include things like long term thinking that lead to investment in our community (eg. Transportation and educational institutions)  among many other factors. A consolidated voice and leadership makes it more likely that we can continue to build on these past successes.

The province of Ontario has designated KW as a "Place to Grow" within the Golden Horseshoe (see report https://www.ontario.ca/document/place-grow-growth-plan-greater-golden-horseshoe) with a target population of 1 million people by 2051. The current population of KW is 650,000 and it seems more likely that we will hit the above target earlier than projected (likely around 2043).

In order to facilitate this significant growth in our communities, we need:

• Increased healthcare capacity-combined new hospital plans underway-but it is going to take 10 years to make this a reality
• Need to complete phase 2 of the LRT project must be completed to improve link to Cambridge-likely 2032 before this begins
• Housing-70,000 new homes in the next 20 years
• Services and programs for 350,000 newcomers to our communities
• Doctor recruitment-before the pandemic there were 20k people without a family doctor, now there is 75k people without a family doctor
• More tradespeople
• Shovel ready development lands

All of the above are necessary ingredients to keep our communities growing and healthy as a place worth living in. It is a long road and the Chamber can continue to provide a voice of our business community and leadership to help enable our community's continued future prosperity.

For further information on the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce, refer to their website at https://greaterkwchamber.com/