Year In Review: Fredericton Chamber CEO Krista Ross On Supporting Businesses Through Tough Times
To cap off 2021, Huddle sat down with some of the most important figures in Atlantic Canada’s business community – folks representing everyone from tourism operators to energy producers to housing advocates.
We asked each to reflect on the challenges, successes, and surprises that most impacted their industries, and the lives of Atlantic Canadians, this year.
In the latest of several conversations we will bring you over the next week, Huddle reporter Tyler Mclean spoke with Krista Ross, the CEO of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce.
Her answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Q – What is the most significant challenge that the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce and its members faced in 2021, and what impact did it have?
Certainly, 2021 has been a bit of a roller coaster for our members, probably even more so than 2020. I think we came into 2021 thinking that things were going to be concluded early in the year with regards to the pandemic and we would get back on track and have a normal situation again, and that hasn’t been the case, especially for those businesses in the hardest-hit sectors, the restaurants and tourism businesses.
It has been a challenging year for our members, and I would say that I’m so proud of our community that has really stepped up to support local businesses.
We’ve been involved with organizations like Ignite Fredericton, the tourism department, Business Fredericton North and Downtown Fredericton Inc in a support local campaign that has had several different iterations.
We launched a holiday “support local” campaign in late October and have been really promoting that idea, that concept that if we want these businesses to be around at the end of this pandemic, then we need to support them and we need to make conscious decisions to support them.
Q – What is the coolest thing that’s happened for the Chamber specifically in 2021?
We began the year with over 1,000 members and we’re ending the year with over 1,000 members. So, we’re still in the largest Chamber of Commerce in the province and our members have been incredibly supportive.
We haven’t been able to do the networking events and activities that they so count on and enjoy, but we have been able to provide them with the advocacy that they need with all three levels of government. We’ve had two elections and the provincial one just prior to that.
At the end of this pandemic or at the end of any difficult crisis or difficult time, we need to be able to rely on our economy not having failed. Supporting the businesses throughout and advocating to government on behalf of businesses is incredibly important.
Q – How do you think the Fredericton Chamber impacted the lives of its members in 2021?
The other key role that I think we’ve played is providing information to our members whether it be on restrictions, regulations and how they need to deal with what’s happening and in particular as it relates to the pandemic, to making sure they know about programs they’re eligible for and how they can participate in them.
We’ve been told by many that essentially, they just counted on us to provide them with the information that they needed, and we’ve been able to do that for them.
We also launched in July the rapid testing program which has been exceptionally successful in terms of participation. It certainly started out slow, but back in September when some changes were made to regulations, we had a huge uptick in participation. We are super busy with handing out rapid tests right now because of the higher transmission rates of the Omicron variant, so we have given out nearly 120,000 tests to businesses and not-for-profit community.
Q – What do you see ahead for the Chamber in 2022?
I think the anxiety level of businesses as it relates to COVID and the Omicron variant and the business environment.
Anxiety is high and people have had a difficult couple of years, but at the same time I do feel, and I hope that there is some sense of optimism and hopefully sometime soon we will see the light at the end of the tunnel.
We just continue to encourage people to follow public health guidance. Get vaccinated if they haven’t, get their boosters when they can, and really do our best to remain as open as we possibly can to protect the economy as well as people.
Q – What else was important for the Chamber this year?
The minimum wage is a challenge and the reason it’s a challenge for a lot of the smaller businesses is that it happened so quickly and was not planned for, it was unexpected.
The government had made a commitment to how they were going to increase the minimum wage, and I think that one of the things that we’ve often talked about is that people need to be able to have predictability and the ability to foresee what might be raising the minimum wage.
By announcing it at the end of the year, effective in the spring and again in the fall, many businesses have their plans fully made for the coming year. Their budgets are set up, their HR plans are set, everything is sort of done for the coming year.
The businesses that pay minimum wage, they’re going to have to make some decisions. They either have to increase their prices, or they have to have fewer hours in order to increase revenue or decrease expenses. Those are big decisions for small business owners, and that’s something they’re going to have to deal with in the coming year.
Other feature interviews in this series:
- Monette Pasher On How Covid Forever Changed Atlantic Canada’s Airline Industry
- Kathryn Lockhart On A New Crop Of Founders Shaking Up Atlantic Canada’s Startup Ecosystem
- Mayor Mike Savage On Managing Growth In Halifax