The Meaford and District Chamber of Commerce held their annual general meeting at Meaford Hall on Tuesday February 23.
Chamber President Geoff Solomon told the room full of Chamber members that 2009 had been both a challenging and an exciting year of transition and change.
Solomon expressed optimism that the many hours of volunteer participation in the Meaford Economic Development Strategy (MEDS) by a large number of community members, including many Chamber members, would put Meaford in a position to build for the future.
He also acknowledged that one of the recent challenges for the Chamber has been the attempt to renegotiate the tourism contract with the municipality.
“Our role with the municipality will probably change,” conceded Solomon, though he remained confident that the Chamber of Commerce would continue to play an active role with the municipality.
Solomon gave special recognition to the contributions of three of the 2009 Chamber Directors who had retired from the board. Derron Bodell, Ivan Franklin, and Paul Osborn were commended for their service to the Chamber.
When all of the standard business including a review of 2009 and the election and swearing in of the 2010 board of directors was complete, guest speaker Meaford CAO Frank Miele talked to the gathering about Meaford's 'Agenda For Prosperity'.
Miele began his presentation by talking about his initial view of Meaford upon his arrival from Vaughan to take his post as CAO for the municipality.
“When I arrived in Meaford, what I saw was no community vision, no strategy,” said Miele.
In addition to a lack of vision and strategy, Miele said that the municipality also had a poor image, low staff morale, a large deficit, and poor internal and external communications.
To help right the ship, Miele embarked on an ambitious campaign to develop a municipal corporate strategy, conduct an operations and service review, develop a five year financial plan, prepare and submit quarterly reports, and help spearhead the MEDS project.
Miele assured attendees that the municipality will benefit from all of those initiatives, though admittedly nothing will happen over night, and it won't happen without a bit of pain.
The five year financial plan will see the $3.3 million accumulated deficit eliminated by 2015 in part by implementing a five percent blended tax increase for five consecutive years, after which the plan calls for annual property tax increases to keep pace with inflation.
“We will be deficit free in less than four years,” informed Miele.
Miele shared his opinion that the years of no property tax increases hurt the municipality, and Meaford is now paying for it.
“Zero tax increase is not good for any community. Even in Mississauga they are now suffering the consequences (of not having property tax increases) of ten years ago,” Miele said.
With regard to the Chamber, Miele said that he sees a role for them to play. Miele is hoping to see the Chamber support the implementation of various strategic blueprints, strengthening the community volunteer base, and helping to create innovative opportunities along side the municipality.
“The Chamber has worked very closely with us,” said Miele, “We'd like to see that continue.”
Miele ended his presentation by driving home his message that for Meaford to prosper, the focus must be on driving economic development.
“Economic development is an investment in our future,” Miele advised.
With the AGM complete, the Chamber of Commerce is looking forward to their annual community awards dinner that will be held at the Meaford & St. Vincent Community Centre on Saturday March 27.
Editor's note: In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that the author of this article, Stephen Vance, is a director on the Meaford & District Chamber of Commerce board.
