Chris Stedile
Rossland News
Come June 15, more progress is expected to be made in regards to the Trail and Rossland Chamber of Commerce merger. This is when the Silver City outlet will be meeting again.
President for the Trail Chamber, Naomi McKimmie said, “We are in agreement that as a board, we are going to go through with [the merger] but because we have to apply to have our district borders expanded through the board of trade and industry, we can’t actually solicit members from Rossland at this time.”
In the meantime, “Any businesses in Rossland that are current members of the chamber in Trail are still members of our chamber,” McKimmie said. She went on to say all businesses in Rossland that would like to be part of the Trail chamber — even before the border expansion — are welcome to contact the office and get a member application.
McKimmie and company at Trail’s Chamber of Commerce are all quite excited to bring Rossland into their fold, but before that can happen there’s significant paperwork and checklists to go through.
Speaking in regards to Rossland’s outlet, McKimmie said, “Now that it’s been dismantled and the doors are closed and it’s no longer functioning, we have to go through certain steps because industry Canada isn’t going to allow us to expand our boundaries until all of the paperwork for the old Rossland Chamber is done and it’s no longer any kind of a legal entity.”
The head of the Trail Chamber explained why she is looking forward to moving along and expanding upwards into Rossland.
“It goes in line with what the Lower Columbia Initiative Corporations are trying to accomplish in bringing unification to the entire lower Columbia area.”
She added, this will help ensure everyone as a whole is working together to promote business, lifestyle and economics.
“That is one of the reasons we feel this is a really good fit for us to bring Rossland into our district. To the outside world, we are showing more of a unified front for the area instead of all these separate little entities.”