The Huron Chamber of Commerce has been recognized as one of the fastest growing chambers in the nation.
According to a new report from the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Canada, the local chamber was the fourth-fastest growing across the country, in the category of small chambers with less than 500 members.
Colin Carmichael, Executive Director of the Huron Chamber of Commerce, said its testament to their commitment to advocacy, business support, and community-building.
"It's great new obviously and it speaks to the work that we've done over the past year at the Huron Chamber to attract new members and show value to our current members," he said.
The Huron Chamber’s membership increased by 27.3 per cent in 2024.
Carmichael said the substantial growth was due to an expansion of their boundaries last year.
"For a number of years, we officially represented three municipalities in Goderich, Central Huron and North Huron," he said. "We came to realize there were areas of the County that were no served by any chamber and in other cases, there were chambers that were ceasing operation... so our board decided to officially expand our boundaries to all areas in the county not officially served by a chamber of commerce."
That means only South Huron, Bayfield and Zurich are not part of the new chamber boundaries.
Carmichael said there's still work to be done to keep growing in 2025.
"We have to show value to the business community in those areas before we can expect them to join the chamber, so we hope to bring some events into these other communities and show our value as a county-wide organization," he said. "It's nothing that happens overnight, but obviously the growth we saw in 2024 bodes well in terms of being able to continue to grow in 2025."
One of those value offerings is the Huron Economic Response Task Force, which will gather all resources and provide a central hub for information about the impact of the ongoing trade war with the U.S.
The next chamber event is the rescheduled Huron Economic Outlook: Local Perspectives on the Ontario Economic Report, at the Blyth Memorial Community Hall on April 4.
