Chamber executive director resigns
Administrator | Sep 04, 2018 | Comments 2
Emily Cowan
Emily Cowan has resigned from her post as Executive Director of the Prince Edward County Chamber of Commerce, effective September 28. She will be starting a new role with the municipality in October.
Cown said it will be difficult to leave the post she has held for the past two years, but is looking forward to applying her skills in the municipality’s Community Development Department as the Grants and Special Projects Co-ordinator.
“I believe my experience working at the Chamber will put me in good stead in my new position and I’m excited to work with a great group of people in the CDD, with whom I already have a great working relationship through collaborations between the dept and the Chamber,” said Cowan. “I am truly sad to leave the Chamber. I am constantly in awe of our members and what they have to deal with everyday in order to keep their business viable.”
Meanwhile, the Chamber is continuing its new direction toward more robust business support for its members and County businesses.
“We have come a long way in the past two years, and there are big plans for more change in the coming years,” said Cowan. “I believe very strongly that the Chamber of Commerce is a valuable asset to Prince Edward County businesses and community groups. The need for an independent business advocate will only increase; the knowledge and opinions of the Chamber’s members are important to community groups looking to improve life in the County and to all levels of government making decisions which effect businesses, employees and residents.”
“Emily has done a wonderful job as our Executive Director and we are certainly going to miss her,” said Sandra Latchford, President of the PEC Chamber board of directors. “Her energy and enthusiasm and her ability to work with our board and the business community have been critical assets in improving our profile in the community. We wish her well in her new position and look forward to working with her as we continue to partner with the municipality to support the business community.”
The board of directors at the PEC Chamber of Commerce will be advertising for candidates to fill the position of executive director in the coming weeks.
The Prince Edward County Chamber of Commerce is an independent, not for profit, non-partisan organization which advocates, supports, and provides services for the local business community.
Filed Under: Local News
The way the business community on Picton’s Main Street has been abused by Shire Hall is not only shameful, but has poisoned any goodwill that existed before the unwanted Heritage District was imposed on them. Many property and business owners want out of the HCD, and are waiting for an exit vote to correct past mistakes.
I conducted a “door to door tour” of the Heritage District on Picton’s Business District in 2016, to survey the opinions of property and business owners regarding the imposition of the unwanted, costly, and legally burdensome heritage regulations on them. I found an overwhelming consensus of anger and disdain in the unwanted Heritage District, toward County Council for their actions against property and business owners who were bullied into taking on meaningless heritage regulation that has reduced the HCD to little more than a signage battleground.
Business owners confided that they feared Shire Hall, and were intimated into going along quietly with the HCD. Following my tour of discovery, I gave an ethical challenge to County Council to do the same, in order to understand the impact of needless and meaningless regulation. More importantly, County Council’s action has also taken our property rights in rest of the County, an aberration that should be advertised to ensure that new buyers are made aware of this extreme heritage policy.
To my knowledge, not one elected official that supported the HCD initially has made that tour of discovery, and so Shire Hall remains disconnected from the reality they created on Main Street.
Local media could turn on some lights, and do this County a big service by conducting meaningful and helpful surveys to understand how the County’s way of preserving built heritage, which has taken all our property rights in the County, has negatively impacted the business community.
I don’t know this person and my comments are not meant to be personal. I have had a concern with how the Chamber has involved themselves with local municipal politics for awhile now – first their president involved the Chamber and himself in The Farm Tax Ratio debate by supporting the farmers in their quest to transfer more taxes onto residential taxpayers. That same president is running for a council position. And now we have the Executive Director for the Chamber being hired by the municipality as a Grants and Special Events Co-ordinator. This same person spoke out against the $15/hr minimum wage knowing that many in the County who could sure use it. My concerns focus on how well the taxpayer will be served and can these people do it in an unbiased fashion? I suppose we have to wait and see how the election turns out in one case, but in the other, I will be watching how she deals with some of the groups who really need financial assistance. BTW , was this new position publicly advertised?