Over the last number of months, there have been some changes that affect our organization’s budget and location.
During budget deliberations in the fall of 2019, the City of Lacombe made the difficult decision to eliminate the fee for service funding provided to the Chamber to run the current Visitor Information Centre. A matching contribution from the County of Lacombe was subsequently eliminated after the board confirmed we could not operate the Visitor Information Centre without the funding.
At the same time, the Chamber was negotiating an agreement with the City for the sale of our building in order to make space for future commercial development. The City has worked closely with us to ensure a positive outcome for the chamber moving forward. We received plenty of notice and administration was committed to ensuring our board was comfortable with the terms of the agreement.
The Board would like to express their gratitude to the Chamber members who contributed time, money and products in order to build our current facility in 1997.
For the last 23 years, 6005 50 Avenue has been a wonderful home for our organization and the ideal location to provide visitor information services. Now that we no longer perform that function, it makes sense that we would look at moving our offices to allow for greater use of the current land.
The Lacombe & District Chamber of Commerce has secured a temporary lease space in the County of Lacombe office on Highway 12 where we can continue to provide a consistent and high level of support to our membership. This lease will allow our Board the time to thoughtfully consider the chamber’s direction for the future
On behalf of the Board of Directors, we would like to thank the City for working with us to ensure a positive outcome for the Chamber moving forward.
The Chamber’s mission is to be ‘A Collective Voice Advocating Growth and Prosperity’, and we believe this decision embodies that mission. With this agreement, we are pleased to be able to contribute positively to the growth of our local business community.
Our Board and Staff remain committed to our membership and look forward to serving the local business community for many years to come.
-Submitted by Theresa Johnston and the Lacombe and District Chamber of Commerce