The Sundre and District Chamber of Commerce's president withdrew a request to have town staff assist with the past weekend's inaugural Explore Sundre Adventure and Home Expo.
“We are respectfully retracting any and all of these requests,” Mike Beukeboom told council during its May 2 meeting.
He said plans had been coming along well for the event, which took place from Friday, May 13 to Sunday, May 15 at the Sundre arena and curling rink, and that he hoped to see council attending. But he added that the chamber simply could not afford to pay about $41 per hour for assistance from town staff.
“I'm sorry for my shortness, but I'm not real impressed,” he said bluntly.
“We talk the talk as a community about some day becoming a provincial destination for conferences, events and just a great place to hang out,” yet there's little to no help when groups try to run an event, he said.
“So we're just going to say thanks, but we're fine. We don't need any help with any of this.”
Coun. Paul Isaac said he felt rather caught off guard by the situation.
“I was caught off guard too,” replied Beukeboom.
He said council had been sent a business development strategy and incentive program from the chamber.
“It's all connected. If we want to move forward as a community, we have to simplify things. We keep piling on the bureaucracy — volunteers like myself are getting fed up, absolutely fed up.”
There are bureaucratic hoops to jump through even beyond the local municipal council, said Beukeboom, adding he's constantly asked to submit requests with a formal chamber letterhead.
There are paid employees who could surely approach groups and organizations to offer assistance on initiatives that are important to the community, he said.
“And I apologize profusely. I was very late getting this information — it slipped my mind. I wanted to send this two weeks earlier than I did. But I've been talking about this thing for months, half a year now, and we're at a crunch.”
He pointed out that nobody was at fault.
“I go back to the business development strategy — it's the process, we have a broken process. At all levels, it's all connected. We're not helping our volunteers. We're not helping our business community do what they do best, and that's be in business,” he said.
“If we want to grow as a community and expand and start to enjoy new revenues, we need to make a fundamental change. If the Municipal Government Act won't allow us to do that, I think it's that big of an issue, then we have to get after that to make massive change.”
Mayor Terry Leslie said he could sense Beukeboom's frustration.
“I should tell you that behind the scenes there's been some talk at some meetings to try and accommodate or address some of these things,” the mayor told him.
However, while council's intent would be certainly to assist wherever possible, there are some limitations, he added.
“We don't have the staff to do some of things that have been requested, but we're in the process of trying to find out how much we can do. If you're withdrawing these requests, certainly that's your right. (But) we do want to assist, and we get the frustration.”
Isaac went on to say what the chamber received is “probably no different than any other organization that has ever come to us…You're no different than any other organization, just so you understand that no one is zeroing you out.”
Beukeboom agreed, and added that despite the chamber's request being sent in late, staff was nevertheless quick to look into what they could do.
“It comes back to the process is broken,” he said.
The chamber president added that he understands the need for rules.
“We can't have a free-for-all out there. But we have an event committee. Why isn't that committee working and taking an initiative to be proactive with (local) events?”
Some community events have been running for many years, and while this was the chamber's inaugural expo, Beukeboom said, “I personally really don't need to have this conversation for the next 30 years.”
The mayor expressed gratitude for Beukeboom approaching council regarding the issue and wished him well for the inaugural expo.
“We will do our best to support it in the future — if we haven't met that expectation at this point — and follow through a process,” said Leslie.
