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BC Chamber of Commerce 56th Annual General Meeting and Conference

• AGM Program & Speakers
• Policy Training for AGM Attendees
• Professional Parliamentarian to Preside Over Policy Sessions
• Proposed Resolutions Manual
• Congratulations to the 2008 BC Chamber Business Award Winners
• Reminder: Road Closures on the Way to Whistler

Chamber Concerned Over Several Significant Bills

Policy Successes

Provincial Government Introduces Legislation to Begin Implementation of TILMA

Canadian Chamber of Commerce Calls for Your Support of the Doha Development Agenda

Music at Work in Your Business & SOCAN

BC Chamber of Commerce 56th Annual General Meeting and Conference

May 22, 2008 – May 24, 2008
Fairmont Chateau Whistler
Whistler, BC

• AGM Program & Speakers
  There is an exciting line-up of speakers and sessions at this year’s AGM. Speakers include John Peller of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, John Furlong of VANOC, and Brian Scudamore, Founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, to name a few. It all starts Thursday, May 22nd, at 11:00 am with the session “Policy Training for First Time Attendees” (see below), followed at noon by the Plutonic Power Corporation Delegates Luncheon, featuring the “Cutting Edge of the Leg.” Panel, Live & in Person. The panelists include Bill Good of the Bill Good Show, Keith Baldrey of Global BC, and Vaughn Palmer of the Vancouver Sun. That’s one not to be missed!
  To receive a copy of the Program at a Glance by email, please contact Alexis Hoy (ahoy@bcchamber.org).
   
• Policy Training for AGM Attendees
  Jon Garson, Vice President of Policy Development at the BC Chamber of Commerce, will be presenting a policy training session on Thursday, May 22nd 2008, at 11:00 am. The session is intended for any delegates needing an update of, or needing introduction to, the process and regulations of the AGM Policy Sessions. Because the structure of the Resolutions Manual has changed to incorporate the BC Chamber’s five priority areas, and this will affect the proceedings of the policy sessions, all delegates are strongly encouraged to attend the policy training session.
   
• Professional Parliamentarian to Preside Over Policy Sessions
  Jon F. Noonan, Professional Registered Parliamentarian, will be presiding over the AGM’s policy sessions. John is the President of the Parliamentarian Association of British Columbia and an Internationally Accredited Speaker.
  In 1999, John was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Parliamentarians where he served four years, two as its National Treasurer, Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee, and as a member of the Executive Committee.
  Today, John practices as a communications consultant, offering services as a registered parliamentarian, presentation skills trainer, and coach to association, government and corporate clients.
   
• Proposed Resolutions Manual
  The Proposed Resolutions Manual can be accessed on the BC Chamber of Commerce website either in its entirety or by downloading individual sections. It is located in the secured members area, which requires that you log in with your email and password. You can find the manual here:
  http://www.bcchamber.org/members_area_laura/2008-Proposed-Resolution-Manual.aspx
  If you are having difficulty accessing the electronic version of the manual, please contact Alexis Hoy, Communications Coordinator, at ahoy@bcchamber.org or 604.638.8114.
  Two hard copies of the manual have been sent to each Member Chamber. In addition, a hard copy will be included in the materials which delegates receive upon arrival at the AGM.
   
• Congratulations to the 2008 BC Chamber Business Award Winners
  Entire Automotive Services Ltd., of Prince Rupert, has been named the BC Chamber’s Small Business of the Year for 2008. Congratulations to owners Dwayne MacNeill and Bonnie Beal for their incredible success.
  Ken Hueston, owner and chef of Smoken Bones Cookshack in Langford, is the BC Chamber’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year for 2008. Congratulations to him also for the extraordinary vision which has set his restaurant apart.
  Please join us in making these outstanding individuals feel welcome at the AGM, as they accept their awards, and share some thoughts on their success. The BC Chamber Business Awards ceremony will take place Saturday, May 24th, at 10:30 am.
   
• Reminder: Road Closures on the Way to Whistler
  Please be alert of the following:
  Highway 99 will be scheduled to close weekdays from midnight to 2am and again from 3 to 5am. In emergencies the highway might close at 10pm. During the day, delegates should expect delays that add up to 30 minutes for the overall trip between West Vancouver and Whistler. No scheduled closures on the weekends. For more info, check here:
  http://projects.ch2m.com/TrafficUpdate/closure-delay-windows.htm
  If you are planning to attend the AGM, please bookmark the above link and refer to it frequently to monitor any changes which could affect your travel plans. You can also call the Public Information line at 1.877. 472.3399. It is also important for those of you planning to travel to Whistler in the late evening to clarify with the airline or the bus service that you choose what they should expect your arrival time to be. In some cases those planning on taking a Greyhound bus, for example, may not have the option of traveling on a late night departure as the highway may already be closed.

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Chamber Concerned Over Several Significant Bills

As we have highlighted in recent editions of the BC Chamber Legislative Watch newsletter our MLA’s have been busy debating several significant pieces of legislation, of particular importance are:

• Bill 18 – Greenhouse Gas Reduction (Cap and Trade) Act
  This piece of legislation provides the structure for emission reporting, compliance and offences that will form the basis for the ‘cap and trade’ system that will be introduced later this year.
   
• Bill 30 – Resource Road Act
  If passed and implemented this bill would transfer back country roads from being under provincial jurisdiction and require users to obtain a permit and pay a fee for their use.
   
• Bill 37 – Carbon Tax Act
  While the Carbon Tax is revenue neutral this refers simply to its impact on provincial government revenue and does not address the impact the carbon tax will have on BC industry.
   
• Bill 43 – Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act (No. 2) - Law and Equity Act
  This bill will result in an unprecedented overturning of respected common law by removing the right to compensation currently provided to tenure or rights holders on public land.
  The Chamber is concerned that while there are several important measures in this bill the cumulative effect of these initiatives has the potential to have a profoundly negative impact on our export industries, particularly forestry, mining, fisheries, and even tourism.
  These sectors, fundamental to our long term economic prosperity, will likely face their third year of lower exports in 2008. While this decline continues to be more than offset by the strong domestic demand driven by construction (both residential and commercial), the consumer demand activities in these sectors are already at an elevated level that will be hard pushed to offset a significant decline in the other side of the economy, the export industries.
  To introduce a range of measures, such as those in the bills listed above, that will have an unknown or unplanned impact on our export base will further hamper these industries' ability to generate new revenue and provide the taxes and other revenue essential to supporting our public services and a healthy urban economy.
  The Chamber is also concerned that a weakening in the export sector will create significant regional economic variances that will distract government from addressing the structural issues that are key to improving our productivity and standard of living.
  The Chamber will be communicating these concerns to the Premier and appropriate cabinet members along with a commitment to continue working with the provincial government to ensure that measures introduced by the government will provide a foundation that allows all sectors, all industries and all regions to prosper.
   
• Bill 30 – Resource Road Act Referred to future session
  Bill 30 – Resource Road Act has been referred “for debate at a subsequent time” (the government also referred Bill 28: Wills, Estates and Succession Act; Bill 40: Insurance Amendment Act, 2008; and Bill 35: Social Workers Act).
  While the Chamber welcomes this referral as recognition of the challenges inherent in this Bill, being referred to a future session does not mean that the issue has gone away. The Chamber will continue to work with government and other stakeholder groups to ensure that any new initiatives and measures introduced that have implications for BC resource road network maintain the principle that these are public infrastructure, particularly given that the cost of these roads is more than returned to government through stumpage and taxes.

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Policy Successes

• P Special Purpose University Act
  April saw the creation of five new “special purpose teaching universities” in BC. Under an amended Universities Act, the mandates for each institution will be designated, which will include the types of programs they will offer and the region they will serve. The four regional universities will continue to offer a broad range of developmental, trade, career, technical and academic programs leading to certificates, diplomas, and baccalaureate and master’s degrees.
   
• P Reform of the Elections Act
  The Provincial Government have tabled Bill 42 – 2008 Election Amendment Act which includes stronger enforcement measures will be provided to the chief electoral officer

Provincial Government Introduces Legislation to Begin Implementation of TILMA

The BC Chamber of Commerce was pleased to learn, in late April, that the Provincial Government has tabled legislation which will help the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement, which BC signed with Alberta in April 2006, to fulfill its potential to support and sustain growth in the two provinces, and uphold BC’s end of the bargain.
The TILMA allows for freer movement between BC and Alberta for both people and services, essentially creating a bridge between the provinces’ economies. Together, they make up Canada’s second largest economy, representing over 7.7 million people, and creating greater resource pools from which both provinces will benefit.
We will continue to watch the progress of the TILMA Implementation Act (Bill 32) with great interest, and keep you informed as it moves forward.

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Canadian Chamber of Commerce Calls for Your Support of the Doha Development Agenda

International trade is critically important to Canada's prosperity and economic well-being. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is a long-standing and vocal advocate of increased trade liberalization and the benefits that it brings to Canadian companies and to Canada.

As expressed in policy resolutions that were unanimously passed at recent annual meetings, the multilateral negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) are a key priority for Canada. Being a mid-sized, trade dependent country, our greatest trade liberalization gains are likely to be realized through multilateral, rather than bilateral or regional, negotiations. Well-functioning and comprehensive multilateral rules and disciplines are in Canada's best interests.

After years of stalled negotiations, progress is being made in the current round of negotiations at the WTO, known as the Doha Development Agenda, with the realistic potential that an agreement could be concluded by the end of this year or early next year. The disciplines being negotiated, including reductions in tariff and non-tariff barriers, in the three central pillars of these negotiations -agriculture, non-agriculture market access (trade in goods) and services - offer substantial gains for Canadians. As an example, the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance recently commissioned a study by the George Morris Centre, an independent think tank, which found that the liberalization currently on offer in the negotiations will yield a $3 billion annual gain just for Canadian farmers of seven primary commodities (beef, pork, wheat, barley, canola, soybeans and peas). Full details of the study and its results can be found at: www.cafta.org/information.html

Despite the benefits that an ambitious Doha deal will offer Canada's exporters, our elected officials do not hear frequently enough from those in the business community that support the agreement.

We strongly encourage you to contact the Minister of International Trade David Emerson, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Gerry Ritz and your local Member(s) of Parliament to express your support for the Canadian government's efforts to conclude an ambitious Doha agreement. It appears likely that a WTO ministerial meeting will take place in late May, so it would be beneficial for your letter of support to be received before then. (For a template letter, please contact Alexis Hoy: ahoy@bcchamber.org.)

Please send the letter to the federal ministers of international trade and agriculture and copy your local MP(s), as well as the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

We thank you in advance for helping express Canadian business' support for the conclusion of an ambitious WTO agreement.

If you have any questions or would like more information, contact Brian Zeiler-Kligman, Policy Analyst, International, at (613) 238-4000, x225, bzeiler-kligman@chamber.ca.

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Music at Work in Your Business & SOCAN

Click here to view this article in PDF
Also available in Mandarin and Cantonese versions (PDF)

Value, accessibility and convenience

The most immediate way to sense the value of music to your business is to imagine your business without it. And SOCAN customers, tens of thousands across Canada, consider music so integral to their business that it’s part of their brand – as important as décor. Here is a brief explanation of why you, as an owner or operator, require a performing rights licence when you use copyright-protected music in your facility. That’s where SOCAN comes in.

SOCAN stands for Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. We ensure that music creators and their publishers get paid for the communication to the public and public performance of their music. SOCAN does this by granting performing rights licences to businesses and individuals publicly playing or broadcasting live or recorded music.

SOCAN will grant such a licence, allowing you access to virtually the world’s entire repertoire of copyright-protected music, when the applicable licence fees are paid. These fees are based on tariff rates set by the Copyright Board of Canada. There are more than 21 different SOCAN tariffs to accommodate the many different uses of music. Some of the most common ones are:

Live Music – Tariff 3.A
The annual fee is 3% of the compensation for that live music. For example, if the annual value of what you’re paying for the live music is $100,000, your annual fee is $3,000. Minimum fee is $83.65 per year.

Adult Entertainment Clubs – Tariff 3.C
Under 3.C, the annual fee is set according to a scale based on your annual days of operation with dancers and the capacity of the room.

Motion Picture Theatres – Tariff 6
For any and all music played in movie theatres (as background AND in the films themselves), the fee is $1.23 per seat.

Rental Functions where either live or recorded music is used – Tariff 8
This tariff pertains to banquet facilities, meeting rooms, reception areas, etc. This is NOT an annual fee tariff, but rather is charged per event, and the fee is calculated based on the capacity of the room and whether or not dancing is part of the function.

Recorded Background Music (not for dancing) – Tariff 15.A
If you use recorded music in your dining area(s), bar(s), or lobby area, the annual fee is 11.46 cents per square foot of the public area (customer-used, not kitchen or storage).

Music on Hold over your telephone system – Tariff 15.B
The annual fee is $94.51 for your initial trunk line and $2.09 for each additional trunk line. A trunk line is a line that connects to the public/outside phone system.

For Tariffs 15.A and 15.B, if you contract with a music supplier that is licensed by SOCAN, the licence fee for that use is covered in what you pay for the service.

Recorded Music for Dancing – Tariff 18
If you have a disco or dance club, your annual fee is calculated according to a scale determined by the number of days per week and months per year that you have music for dancing as well as the capacity of the room.

Fitness Activities – Tariff 19
The annual fee is based on the average number of participants per week per room multiplied by $2.14.

Karaoke – Tariff 20
The annual fee is $191.24 for three days per week or less of karaoke, or $275.56 for four or more days per week, regardless of room size, capacity, etc.

For full details on these and other SOCAN tariffs, or to find out more about SOCAN, visit www.socan.ca or give us a call. For new customers, please call 1-866-944-6210 and for existing customer queries, please call 1-866-944-6223.