A municipal council committee to focus on economic development issues is part of an increasing emphasis on the importance of economic activity.
At first glance, the new group hardly seems necessary, since Summerland already has groups in place to focus on business-related issues and economic growth.
The Summerland Chamber of Economic Development and Tourism, the Summerland Merchants’ Committee and the Summerland Economic Improvement Group are all taking roles to help Summerland’s business community.
This is a refreshing change from a few years ago when the Summerland Chamber of Economic Development and Tourism, then the only business group in the community, sometimes had a hard time filling all the roles on its board.
Over the past year, there has been a renewed interest in ensuring Summerland is open for business.
It is important to remember the council committee will not compete with any of the existing organizations. Instead, as a committee of council, it is intended as an action group, to bring about business-positive changes at the council level.
The Summerland Chamber and the Summerland Merchants’ Committee have been working to promote the businesses in place.
The newly formed Summerland Economic Improvement Group has spoken about the need for the business community to work with council.
With a growing interest in promoting and enhancing the local economy and with a growing number of people interested in speaking up about those issues, the community will be able to find some good, creative solutions to the challenges we are now facing.
We have to all work together to make things happen.