The Smithers Chamber of Commerce has been provided a grant of $20,000 from the Town.
The grant is in recognition of the extra work created by the COVID-19 Pandemic for the Smithers Chamber according to a statement.
The motion was put forward at the Town’s regular council meeting on May 26.
“As all levels of government are being urged to be responsive, I suggest this is one way we can assist our community, particularly our business community to work its way through this pandemic. By supporting the Chamber, we will be supporting our business community.
Smithers Chamber Manager, Sheena Miller said she is feeling excited and pleased with the funding that has been provided.
“We feel so supported and we’re so honoured that the municipality would consider the Chamber of Commerce and acknowledge all of the hard work that has gone in the previous year and especially the last two months at the chamber,” she said.
According to Miller, the funding is already spent and goes to supporting regular chamber operations.
The statement also added the Smithers Chamber is providing critical service to community businesses with help in grant writing, aiding people to work their way through federal and provincial financial assistance programs, understanding guidelines for safe re-opening, and creating educational webinars.
Miller said the Smithers Chamber approach has gone viral throughout the province and the North.
“It’s really interesting to see what people gravitate too and pick up on right now but our chamber is certainly putting a lot of time into communications because that’s a big piece of COVID-19,” she said.
Early estimates have indicated the Chamber will be down approximately $15,000 in membership revenue and between $23,000 to $50,000 in lost event revenue.