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 Join the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce
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Shaping a strong, sustainable, diverse economy in the central Okanagan

Since 1906, the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce has played a key role in building, developing and promoting Kelowna and our surrounding region. When the private sector is strong, innovation and prosperity follow. An effectively functioning community requires good services, including transportation, government, and opportunity. The Kelowna Chamber works with its members to ensure equal opportunities for everyone, and that we are one of the best places in Canada to live, work, prosper and play.

Advocacy is broad-based support for Chamber-approved policy direction, works for the benefit for most chamber members, does not position one member's interests against another's, and is principle-based. Policy is more specific, referring to an issue-based set of understandings and recommendations around a specific topic.

 

Advocacy Example: The Chamber advocates for a reduction in the cost of doing business. Various specific policies are written in support of this (taxation review; cut red tape; simplify regulations). The Kelowna Chamber maintains an active, ongoing program of taking issues that are important to members, on to elected officials and ministries, at all three levels of government: municipal, provincial and federal.

Policy Example: The Chamber researches, writes, and takes to government a specific policy such as "Cancel the speculation tax unless it is applied equally across all jurisdictions, and monies collected flow back to the region in which they are collected". In any given year, the Kelowna Chamber has up to 25 active policies (adopted policies remain active for three years) on the books.

Adopted policies form the basis of Kelowna Chamber policy work. Annual policy development forums, Issue Roundtables and focused speaker events give our members numerous opportunities throughout the year to bring their concerns in front of our policy team and other members to ensure their voices are heard in government. 

Adopted policies can be accessed on both the BC Chamber's and the Canadian Chamber's policy webpages. Three years of BC policies can be found here or you can search by topic here. Three years of Canadian Chamber policies can be found here.  

 

Our Policy Work

The Policy Advisory Committee at the Kelowna Chamber oversees all Chamber policy developments and advocacy initiatives, ensuring alignment with the Chamber's mission of working to achieve business strength in the Okanagan. The Committee serves at the direction of the Board of Directors and is supported by the management team.

What we do:

Policy Development Forum for members

  • Input from members on topics of importance to their business/organization

  • Draft policy resolutions which address member concerns for adoption by other chambers and discussion with government representatives. A full list of adopted policies linked to action recommendations for the past three years is included on this website.

  • Collaborate with other chambers to support their policy initiatives. List includes:

    Regional & Remote Air Access

    Fort Nelson & District Chamber

    Empower Municipalities to Support Their Business Communities in Times of Crisis: Amending the Community Charter

    Westshore Chamber

    Supporting B.C.’s Devastated Wine Industry

    Penticton & Wine Country Chamber

    Build Capacity for the Food Processing in Agriculture Industry by Modernizing the Agriculture Land Reserve

    Abbotsford Chamber

    Transportation Demand Management Solutions for B.C.’s Industrial Areas & Business Parks

    Delta Chamber

    Supporting a Homegrown & Entrepreneurial Digital Economy in B.C.

    Greater Vancouver Board of Trade

  • Policy Tracker: topic list shared with members to ensure issues remain pertinent

Issue Roundtables

Convened periodically to hear experts, get member input on topics of importance to business and organizations in the Okanagan and inform policy development.

Labour Roundtable, July 25, 2024  Notes
Crime Roundtable, August 15, 2024  Notes
Housing Roundtable, September 24, 2024  Notes

Letters to elected officials & meetings with elected officials and government staff

Every year, the Chamber sends numerous letters outlining our, and members' concerns across a broad range of issues. These letters generate responses, ranging from return messages, to setting up member events where the officials outline their position, to studies, and opportunities to work with government staff to review proposed changes.

Seat on National Agriculture and Agri-Food Committee of the Canadian Chamber

This membership gives us a chance to input western Canada issues around food, food security, agricultural tariffs, export issues, and multiple federal regulations. Speakers from the CFIA among many others offer input to committee members from time to time.

Work with partners to initiate change

The Kelowna Chamber is willing to speak out on behalf of its members on issues of local, provincial and national importance. One example is our ongoing policy opposing the B.C. Spec Tax:

Scrap the Spec Tax

The Kelowna Chamber was a founding member of a coalition of B.C. business groups which launched a campaign called Scrap the Spec Tax to demand that the NDP government reverse their decision to implement the new tax. The coalition included the Kelowna Chamber, Tourism Victoria, Canadian Home Builders Association, UDI, Independent Contractors of British Columbia, and Nanaimo and Peachland Chambers of Commerce. Each year, the Kelowna Chamber submits a new policy to government calling for repeal of the legislation or modification to ensure fairness.

Economic Scorecard Project

The Economic Scorecard project was a venture between the Kelowna Chamber, the City of Kelowna, the Okanagan School of Business, and UBC Okanagan Faculty of Management. The Scorecard provides an evidence-based view of Kelowna's performance in comparison to 16 other North American and international cities. Data was drawn from 78 sources to generate scores and grades on 24 indicators: 12 social indicators and 12 economic indicators.

Overall, Kelowna came in 10th out of 17 cities studied. Kelowna scored better on the Economic indicators (6th) than on the Social indicators (14th). At the top end of the Scorecard, Kelowna received three A grades - income inequality, self-employed in labour force, and total value of building permits per capita. To read the complete Scorecard, click here.

State of the Southern Interior Region

Produced by the Kelowna Chamber with research & content written by the Chief Economist and the Manager of Consulting, Economics and Research of MNP LLP.

The Report was created in support of SIRES, Kelowna's Economic Summit launched in 2022. The data covers the Okanagan, Kootenay, Thompson-Columbia, and Hope-Fraser Valley regions, including macroeconomic indicators, overviews of the labour market and major infrastructure projects, and the Indigenous People of the Southern Interior. 

The Southern Interior Region of British Columbia is a vast geographic area, spanning mountain ranges, verdant farmland, rich forests, wildlife and ranches, ski hills and lakes, and numerous interior cities and towns From Hope to Sparwood, to Valemount and Merritt, to Kamloops and Revelstoke, Kelowna to Nelson and Cranbrook – the geography creates physical barriers which economic development practitioners wrestle with every day. Indigenous businesses, tourism magnets, agricultural endeavours, mining and forestry and thousands of retail organizations all contribute to a lively economy in the region. Read the full report here.

Southern Interior Regional Economic Summit

Elevating our Potential Together

The Kelowna Chamber hosted delegates from across broad economic sectors in the southern interior of B.C. in October 2022.

The Summit kicked off with addresses from Andrew Ramlo, Vice President, Advisory, rennie group; Susan Mowbray, Chief Economist, MNP; and Stephen Tapp, Chief Economist, Canadian Chamber of Commerce. These three recognized thought leaders delivered strategic management, economic demand forecasts, and recent work from the newly established Business Data Lab of Canada. 

A central focus of the Summit was Indigenous reconciliation, and Kelly Lendsay, President & CEO, Indigenous Works, spoke to Indigenous inclusion and advantage. He spoke to the passion within the Indigenous business community for innovation and economic inclusion.

A key focus of the Summit was post-pandemic economic recovery. The Panel, Recovery through Tourism & Hospitality was moderated by Ellen Walker-Matthew, CEO, Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association. Her passion for responsible, sustainable tourism and her leadership in this role set the tone for the panelists, who included: Paula Amos, Chief Marketing & Development Officer, Indigenous Tourism BC; Kelsey Millman, Communications Manager, BC Hotel Association; and Richard Porges, President & CEO, Destination BC. Their key message was 'build back better.'

The Labour Force Recovery panel followed, facilitated by Nicole Kleemaier-Raaijen, Red Moose Immigration, who led panelists through the minefield that post-pandemic labour markets demonstrate. Leigha Horsfield, Executive Director of Community Futures North Okanagan; Julien Picault, Professor Teaching, Economics, UBC Okanagan; and Tanja Halsell, Potentia Human Resources brought insightful strategies for navigating the challenges of labour markets in a market that is growing exponentially.

As the Summit entered Day 2, the panel "Recovery through Collaboration" led by Krista Mallory, Manager, Central Okanagan Economic Development Commission kicked off lively discussions around how to work with partners. While Joel McKay, CEO, Northern Development was unable to travel to Kelowna due to last minute issues, the panel was ably filled by Laurel Douglas, CEO, ETSI-BC (a major seed funder of the Summit), and Dale Wheeldon, President & CEO, BC Economic Development Association. The connections among economic development providers at the Summit were writ large in this leadership panel which gave ample proof of theory becoming reality as it fuels growth in the southern interior.

The centrepiece of Day 2 was the blockbuster panel "Economic Recovery through Reconciliation", giving life to the Truth & Reconciliation Commission's call to action Number 92, “to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a reconciliation framework and to apply its principles, norms, and standards to corporate policy and core operational activities involving Indigenous peoples and their lands and resources.” Ably moderated by Greg Hopf, Moccasin Trails, the panel comprised Jordan Coble, Councillor, Westbank First Nation; Devin Gambier, Business & Economic Development, Tk'emlups te Secwepemc, Danalee Baker, Assistant Manager, Economic Development, Tk'emlups te Secwepemc, Hugh Moore, CEO, Ka-kin Resource Corporation, and Mike J. Campol, COO, Osoyoos Indian Band. 

Their far-ranging interaction, and experiential story telling was an enriching experience for all the delegates, who were given a deeper understanding of innovative, sustainable Indigenous economic development and environmental stewardship.

"What We Heard" is a record of the proceedings of the two-day Summit and can be accessed here.

Joint Studies with Government; Submissions to Government on Budgets, Other Issues
 
Individual policies may be accessed through the pull-down menu "Policy" on this website.
 
 
 

Policy Overview - Adopted Kelowna Chamber Policies

PROVINCIAL

2024 

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018 Kelowna Chamber Adopted Policies

2017 Kelowna Chamber Adopted Policies

 

FEDERAL 

Similar to the provincial process, but a little different. As a member of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, our Policy Advisory Committee works to put forward policy submissions on a federal level. At the Canadian Chamber Annual General Meeting, we and other Canadian Chamber members seek majority approval to adopt our policies - now to a federal platform. 

2021 Submissions

2018 (Adopted)

2017 (Adopted)