(Views expressed are those of our individual members and may or may not reflect those of the Chamber)

Chamber of Commerce- Accentuating the Negative  
June 14, 2010                                                                         
 
I am a long time member of the Owen Sound and District Chamber of Commerce. Over the last few years the services offered by our Chamber have been improved in many ways. But if I was to characterize the approach to our advocacy role it would be – “Build a stronger local economy - by accentuating the negative.”
 
Dave Moyer, the current Chamber president says that “(the) Advocacy role is the essence of the Chamber”. I agree that it is important. However, what we have witnessed in recent years is advocacy around a series of narrow, negative and sometimes misleading issues. Our advocacy is usually critical - rarely constructive. It is usually aimed at the city, which is an easy target. Our own members are seldom reminded of their role in improving the business environment we operate in. 
 
And, somehow this strategy is supposed to have a transforming and motivational effect on local government and our membership.
 
A good example of misleading advocacy  is the way  the ‘Bad News Bears’ at the Chamber chose to market their recent on-line; so-called survey. The questions were superficial and didn’t allow for any in-depth response.
 
Only 21 % of our 550 members (120 in total) bothered to answer the survey .This is discouraging, since we claim to be the “voice of business” in an area that has thousands of businesses.
 
Despite this modest level of participation the results would be encouraging for any community trying to find its way through the worst economic downturn in our lifetime.
Well over 90% of the respondents thought that “Owen Sound was a good place to live…to work …and to play”! This is a remarkable endorsement of the life style that we enjoy in this City.
 
Of those who responded, 75% thought that the city was a “good place to operate a business. This is also a positive result considering that most Chamber firms, including my own company, are still struggling in an atmosphere of economic uncertainty.
 
Apparently the chief concerns were high commercial property taxes and red tape at city hall. Both are problems that need to be seriously addressed – particularly when you consider that our commercial and industrial tax rates are amongst the highest in the province. 
 
But our executive took no sustenance from the 75% satisfaction rate. The press release that announced the results never mentioned the glass three quarters full. Instead it focused, as usual, on the glass one quarter empty.  This seems to be the cornerstone of the Chamber’s current advocacy strategy – find the negative, and flog it.
 
 The release reads, “But the opinion of more than 25% of business owners/managers was ‘NO’ when asked whether Owen Sound was a good place to operate a business.” (note the capitalization of the word no for effect). This is, “concerning due to the number of respondents who where not happy…” 
 
To put the numbers in perspective, 25% represents about 30 firms. 
 
Not satisfied with this result, and in search of something more damaging, the Chamber digs deeper. They tell us that 33% of the business owners who replied were “not happy with the business environment in Owen Sound.”
 
 
These unhappy 33% owner members appears to represent less than a dozen firms (one third of 30 firms) - this is out of 120 survey respondents; 550 Chamber members; and thousands of other firms in the area who don’t belong to the Chamber.
 
A few days after the media release the Sun Times bought into the Chamber’s interpretation of its survey. It published a front page storey entitled “Survey shows business dissatisfaction”. The first line of the storey read,” One in three business owners who responded to a recent Owen Sound Chamber of Commerce survey said that the city was not a good place to operate a business.”
 
Here we have the views of about 10 small firms (only a few larger companies are Chamber members) being used by the Chamber, and the Sun Times, as a barometer for overall business satisfaction in the city. This is misleading reporting, and damaging advocacy.
 
It does nothing to help retain and grow the businesses that we have, or attract new employers to this area. A prospective employer, looking to locate in Owen Sound, is left with the impression that fully one third of all business owners in this area think it is not a good place to do business – based on ten opinions! Scratch this city off their list.
 
We also do not need another repeat of the Chamber’s recent appearance before City Council. It was classic example of lose-lose advocacy.
 
 The Chamber pressed for answers about a contract that wasn’t awarded to a Kitchener firm. And it wanted details about negotiations going on between the city and the Medical Clinic. Both of these issues are secondary compared to the serious economic challenges facing this community. 
 
Most of the Council members over-reacted to the detailed questioning on the first issue. They were not able to respond to the latter because the negotiations were ongoing and confidential. The whole proceeding turned confrontational. It ended by creating an even bigger void between the Chamber and the City.
 
The Chamber could have used this appearance to suggest to Council some creative ways of growing the City’s residential and business base - as a means of keeping future taxes under control. Growth is a primary path to reasonable taxes It is a shared responsibility between local business, our major institutions and the city.
 
Other Chambers across the province, including the Ontario Chamber of Commerce itself, are using more positive and constructive forms of advocacy to achieve local and provincial growth.
 
 They usually begin by working on mutual issue identification with governments and other local stakeholders. If the fundamental restraints to growth in this city really are high commercial/industrial taxes and city hall red tape, then it’s important to get the city to agree that these are key issues, and to sit down together and address them.
 
Other Chambers seem capable of sharing ideas, helping to develop solutions and uncovering new opportunities for growth and co-operation. They push for consensus on how to resolve major issues. Progressive chambers often enter into strategic partnerships with local governments and others organizations to help implement solutions, and press for results.
 
This is a far cry from our Chamber’s nagging, nit-picking and sometimes misleading “voice of business” for this area. The Chamber sits on the city’s economic development committee that is implementing action plans that the Chamber has approved. But our advocacy group seems completely disconnected from these initiatives.
 
Instead of pushing for changes or more progress on these mutually agreed to economic strategies, they take an easier route. They find, or manufacture, weaknesses where ever they can. Then they usually hold governments fully responsible for outcomes– without offering any meaningful solutions, or challenging the performance of our own members.
 
My Chamber would be more effective if it stopped magnifying problems and started working intelligently and positively with the city and other local agencies to help solve the major problems that are limiting business growth in our community.
 
 Hopefully our next executive’s voice will be more constructive, relevant and influential.
 
 
Michael Warren is the CEO of The Warren Group, a Chamber member, and former chair of the City’s Economic Development Advisory Committee. r.michael.warren@gmail.com




Response to Michael Warren and Chamber survey by Paul Neville