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Castlegar Chamber of Commerce holds 2nd annual Business Walk

The Castlegar & District Chamber of Commerce is gearing up for its second annual Business Walk.
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Charlotte Ferreux (left), vice-president of the Castlegar Chamber of Commerce and owner of Thrive consulting, and Councillor Bruno Tassone (right) talked to Kathy Mota, owner of Cut Loose, during last year’s Business Walk. (Chelsea Novak/file photo)

The Castlegar and District Chamber of Commerce is gearing up for its second annual Business Walk.

On Thursday, between 9:30 a.m. and noon, and 1:30 and 4 p.m., more than 20 volunteers will visit over 100 local businesses to hear from business owners and get a better picture of how things are going for them.

“The biggest part for us is that on an annual basis you have people who are in positions that can help make change for businesses that are actually out there,” says Tammy Verigin-Burk, executive director of the chamber of commerce.

The program is a partnership between the chamber, the City of Castlegar, Community Futures Central Kootenay and the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training.

Last year, during the first annual Business Walk, volunteers visited 93 businesses.

Of the businesses visited, only a handful of owners or managers weren’t available when volunteers stopped by and some of them sent in survey responses afterward.

Verigin-Burk says the chamber decided to organize the Business Walk again this year because of “the feedback from the business owners that were just so thrilled that we took the time to come out to their businesses and talk to them in their own space.”

This year’s Business Walk will use the same set of questions.

“It’s a standard set of questions and it’s a provincial tool, so we ask the same questions. This year we’re hoping to go to businesses that we didn’t go to last year, but we may be doubling up on some of the businesses,” says Verigin-Burk.

Last year the Business Walk survey showed that 60 per cent of business owners or managers rated the current state of their business as good or increasing. It was also discovered that a little over a third of businesses had no succession plan and 42 per cent of businesses said they had trouble finding skilled employees.

The chamber will be looking to see if there are any changes from last year’s results.

Based on last year’s results, the chamber has offered training sessions addressing issues like succession and has held labour shortage meetings.

“It’s working with Selkirk College as well hearing more in terms of the specific areas that there’s shortages,” says Verigin-Burk. “And so working with Selkirk College as well as the business community and provincial players too. We brought in the BC Chamber of Commerce to hear what the concerns are so we can start discussing it at a higher level, at a provincial level what some of our concerns are around the labour shortages.”

Verigin-Burk says employers report having trouble finding dedicated and quality employees. Specifically, employers have trouble finding chefs, servers and retail customer service representatives.

If volunteers miss you’re business, they’ll be back next year or you can contact Tammy Verigin-Burk at the Castlegar Chamber of Commerce, 250-365-6313, to arrange for an interview.