Q+A: Why the Yukon Chamber of Commerce could go out of business
Chambers of commerce aren't exempt from the same economic laws as their members —if expenses are higher than revenue, your days are numbered.
That's the situation the Yukon Chamber of Commerce now finds itself in. Members will vote next month on whether to wind down the organization, or try to keep going with a new board.
Managing director Patti Balsillie spokes to Yukon Morning host Elyn Jones about the situation.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
So we laid out some of the reasons that the chamber is is considering shutting down. Tell us more about the Yukon Chamber and how you got to this place.
There's loosely 17 to 20 trade-related non-profit organizations designed for advocacy that are all trying to vie for additional member benefits and services and programs to attract revenue. This is not a situation that happened in three months. Since COVID, I think business communities have had to decide how and where to spend their money and they're looking for strong value and non-redundancy.
So I think the state of today is an operational model that didn't respond to those changes.
Where does the chamber's funding come from?
Twenty per cent of revenue or less is member revenue. So if you imagine any NGO office having at least one staff person, that's $100,000 in wages and rent etc. So when you have more members, you need to diversify revenue streams from event sponsorship, delivery of services, anything that might have a fee for service and of course Yukon government funding.
Over time, I think the momentum behind the role of the Yukon chamber has been distracted with fundraising and finding its relevancy.
Forty years ago there was not the plethora of NGOs and today we're in a very noisy space. I, as a small business person, have five industry memberships right now either for professional development or networking or advocacy, and it's not sustainable.
Would it make more sense in your mind to have one umbrella organization that would advocate for all those groups? Is that what you're proposing?
I'm not proposing anything. I'm getting out of the way to let the membership decide. The owners of the organization are those who vote and pay membership. And so the members meeting is June 11th. It's their call on how they want to proceed. We have a motion to dissolve. Should they not support that motion, there needs to be an 'OK, then what?' And it needs to have a volunteer tsunami behind it.
The current organization, the current board on their behalf, they are extremely disappointed to have to arrive at this place. It's been really tough and they've rolled up their sleeves to say, 'What do we do? If not this, then what? How do we not take responsibility?' We also have businesses to run and families to look after.
How much of an issue has has member turnover been?
I'm gonna say it's been a 50 per cent or greater turnover with resignations by board members for all kinds of reasons including business is busy and they have to pick their time. Volunteer hours are at a premium right now.
Why is having a Yukon Chamber of Commerce important?
We have over 10,000 people living or more living outside of the City of Whitehorse who are also running businesses and facing challenges with roads or waste or taxes or labour and they need an advocacy voice. And the Yukon chamber came into play in 1985 because of that. Today those businesses remain, their challenges are different yet similar and they need a leadership voice.
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