The Battlefords Chamber of Commerce watched closely as the federal budget was handed down by the Liberal government on Monday. Chamber chief operating officer Linda Machniak told the monthly . . .
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The issue was raised by vice-chair of the board, Derek Schmidt, who asked if the Saskatchewan Chamber was always in regular communication and advocating with the province on the importance of reopening. Chief Operating Officer Linda Machniak responded in the affirmative, noting the Saskatchewan Chamber business council had been meeting with trade and export minister Jeremy Harrison the previous week. Machniak said they are in regular contact not only with the government but with other stakeholder groups as well. There has been lots of discussion, she said, about not having competing messages out there. For example, she said, the medical community at one point talked about a shutdown, and the provincial chamber president Steve McLellan reached out to them to make sure “everybody’s on the same page we all want the same things, it’s just the different interest groups have perhaps different items on the discussion block, if you will.”
One major event usually scheduled for late January is the annual Chair’s Banquet (formerly President’s Banquet). The 2021 event would, under normal circumstances, see current chair Harris Sutherland pass the gavel to the current second-in-command, Melanie Roberts of North West College, and see the swearing in of Roberts and the new Chamber executive. But with banquets being a prime source of COVID-19 infection, and with gathering restrictions in place, it is unlikely to go ahead in the usual format. Instead, the Chamber has discussed holding the event as a catered lunch instead. By “catered,” Chamber chief operating officer Linda Machniak said, they mean “catered out at their place of business.”