Happy 2019!
Posted on February 5, 2019 in Front Lines
Happy 2019! I hope you enjoyed any time off you may have had recently with friends and family! I know that I was fortunate to meet some new friends, catch up with some old friends and stay connected to my family. That being the case, I still feel like December and January came and went too quickly!
Your NSBA was very active in 2018 and it looks like 2019 will continue that trend. We look forward to continuing to work on your behalf to improve the business environment for us all.
The NSBA events are where many of you will get to know the NSBA culture as we certainly have some of the best business events if you want to have some fun, network with peers and seek out good business contacts. That is true, but to understand the real NSBA you need to understand the work of the NSBA staff and the NSBA committees with respect to advocacy. That is truly why the NSBA exists, to advocate on behalf of our membership to improve the business environment we work in.
The NSBA is currently working on over 26 advocacy issues on behalf of you – our members. This number goes up as we receive calls from you to help push some level of government or bureaucracy to improve the way they could deal with a specific (or broad) situation. Perhaps more importantly, the number goes down as those advocacy situations are dealt with and the NSBA has helped at least one of our members to achieve a better outcome.
NSBA advocacy file ranges through all levels of government. Civic matters to address such as storm water retention policy, bus rapid transit, city budgeting and civic procurement. Advocacy for Provincial matters such as Workers Compensation improvements, Provincial procurement through Priority Saskatchewan, and the perimeter highway, bridges and overpasses to shift Highway 16 North around Saskatoon. Federally the NSBA advocacy deals with supporting pipelines along with the oil and gas industry, supporting real solutions to climate change not carbon tax, and the negative impact of the proposed Bill C-69.
These are just a few items we have on our radar currently and are actively dealing with. We hope you would consider calling the NSBA should you have anything you would like to get some help dealing with. Sometimes staying anonymous and getting an independent association to speak on your behalf helps you as well as many others impacted that do not feel they have a voice.
If you have not participated in a NSBA Club Connect breakfast, I highly recommend it. Great speakers and networking go well with breakfast every second Friday. For your valentine’s day we are excited to have Tribal Chief Mark Arcand speaking at our NSBA Luncheon Series on Feb. 14 with many more speakers to come throughout the year. Thank you for your support of the NSBA, for inspiring others to be a part of the NSBA to create a better business climate and donating as generously as you did at the Children’s Wish Luncheon in December. I look forward to seeing you at the NSBA Business Builder Awards celebration March 20th, or another event before then!
Alan Migneault, NSBA Board Chair