The month of May has been a very busy one at your Brampton Board of Trade. There have been many events for our members and transportation has been a key topic of discussion. In addition to Board of Trade events your Board also participated in many other events including the GTA West Summit and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce AGM.
Our events included Focus Pakistan (partnered with Canada Pakistan Business Council [CPBC]), Business Person of the Year and the Brampton Outstanding Business Achievement Awards (partnered with the City of Brampton), Post Ontario Budget Luncheon (partnered with the Mississauga Board of Trade) and a Luncheon with International Trade Minister Ed Fast (partnered with Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce [ICCC]).
Of these major events in just May you will notice four of them are organized in partnership with other organizations. In our Strategic Plan (now posted on our website) you will see that Partnerships is one of the themes of this document (Strategic Priority #3). We will meet this priority by coordinating and organizing “strategic partnerships by sector to deliver events, activities and educational programs to meet the needs of businesses within Brampton”.
These partnerships will be grouped in a number of areas. First, with the City of Brampton, who is arguably our greatest partner to help business in Brampton thrive. This will include Economic Development, other departments and the Downtown Brampton Development Corporation. Second, you will see us work with other business associations. These may be ethnic based (like CPBC or ICCC) or based on some other business sector. You will also see us work with other Chambers of Commerce or Boards of Trade. This could be Mississauga, Caledon or Toronto. Our objective is to work with any organization that will add value to Brampton businesses. It will keep us busy but we believe we can be a connector helping Brampton businesses grow their business.
By the time you read this MetroLinx will have issued its funding recommendation for The Big Move. You Board has been very active and has approved a policy on this project and its funding. This policy includes three recommendations. We support the implementation of The Big Move. We recommend that the detailed planning for parts of the plan (such as the Hurontario LRT) be completed in consultation with the local community (residents, business and government). And we recommend that the funding of the plan be based on principles. These include that funding must be dedicated, collection and distribution of funding must be transparent, costs must be distributed fairly and the tools should help Ontario’s economic competitiveness. If MetroLinx and the Ontario government can deliver we will have a real win-win in the Province.
As I have said before, in business tough decisions sometimes have to be made. Your Board of Trade, Brampton’s Board of Trade, will make whatever leadership decisions are in the best interest of our business community.
Until next month, Be Heard, Be Seen and Belong! Your BBoT is here to help you grow!