When it comes to advocating for the best interest of the business community, the Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce is always hard at work.
“The chamber is the voice of business,” said Teri-Lynn MacKie, Lloydminster Chamber executive director. “We are usually businesses’ first stop to municipal, provincial and federal government when they’re having any kind of issue.”
Read more: Saskatchewan families to get highest tax-free income in Canada in 2026
The chamber regularly hosts member roundtables to go over any issues they may be having, providing an opportunity to discuss items they want to see the chamber advocate for.
“We meet with our members at the end of the month,” said MacKie. “If there are issues coming forward provincially or federally, we develop policies and there’s timelines we have to submit.
“If an issue comes forward, it goes to our political action committee. Then we decide if they want to go forward to bring a policy to our municipal, provincial or federal government.”
She says the policies then get voted on by the board to see if it will move forward.
“We develop the policy, the board approves it and then we start advocating to what level of government it affects,” said MacKie.
She says a lot of the work the chamber does has to do with difficulties dealing with the Lloydminster border. Even with the difficulty of being a Border City, MacKie says there’s been big wins for the community, easing issues businesses have.
“The ‘sandwich gate,’ that was a huge win for our community to get both Alberta, Saskatchewan and the federal government together at the same table for them to listen to our issue and them get on board to help us relieve those pain points.”
There’s been plenty of wins for the Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce over the years.
“The PST was another big one the chamber advocated for; that Lloydminster be looked at as one full city and that there’s no PST on the Saskatchewan side to make it a level playing field,” MacKie explained.
She says advocating at various levels of government look similar, but different, giving examples of dealing with the two provincial governments.
“If you have a policy in Alberta, it goes to a policy debate,” she said.
The chamber will present the policy and the membership at large for the Alberta Chambers of Commerce to vote on to go into the Alberta Policy Book. The Federal chamber advocacy framework is like Alberta’s. Saskatchewan’s, however, is different.
“Saskatchewan is a little bit different. If there’s a provincial policy, you develop it and then advocate on your behalf,” she said.
With 2026 now here, the chamber will be working to review their policies.
“We will be reviewing our policies this year, so it will be 2024, 2025 and 2026, that’s our policy book,” said MacKie. “Then, we review 2023’s to see if there’s any relevant ones or if any of them have to be updated.”
The chamber has a number of active policies, including items such as Saskatchewan funding for policing in Lloydminster. MacKie says their provincial advocacy largely revolves around health care.
“Provincially, a lot of it has to do with health care right now and making sure we have access to Netcare and equitable funding from both sides of the province,” she said.
When it comes to municipal work, MacKie says there’s ongoing efforts to advocate for public transit.
“Public transportation has been on our books for a long time,” she said. “The chamber doesn’t believe we need a large-scale public transportation (system). But there should be a made-in-Lloydminster, small scale public transportation. Something to get people around.”
Another local item includes giving more leeway to local businesses when it comes to bidding on contracts through the municipality’s procurement and purchasing policy.
“Wanting the City of Lloydminster (to) have some sort of caveat for there to be a local aspect,” she said. “If you’re looking to apples to apples and if there was a bit of a price break for the local (businesses).”
MacKie says the chamber has a good working relationship with the municipality.
“The mayor sits on our board. We have regular conversations all the time,” she said. “Our board and political action committee meet with the city, mayor and council twice a year.”
If businesses are having any issues, she says it’s important to bring those forward.
“If our member businesses are having issues, make sure you reach out and speak to the chamber and bring those issues forward,” said MacKie, noting the importance of the work they do.
“If you look at food, how much has that changed our community. Where you are able to take a sandwich across the street and sell it. It looks like our city is a full city as opposed to being two halves of a city.”
