In January of 2024, their staff at the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce was excited because they had hit a milestone – there were 1,016 members of the local chamber, breaking the 1,000 member mark.
This January, there were 1,155 members, a 13-per-cent increase, said Cory Redekop, CEO of the chamber. In fact, during the past three years, membership has grown by 24 per cent.
He said it’s a testament both to Langley’s growth, and to the growth of the business community.
The number of members matters when the chamber’s staff and directors are speaking up on behalf of local businesses. When a politician hears that an organization like the chamber represents more than 1,100 businesses, they tend to listen, said Redekop.
Advocacy on behalf of local business is one of the two major pillars of the chamber’s mission. The other is community building.
On the advocacy side, Redekop noted that local business owners have better things to do than pore over the provincial budget, for example. That’s what the chamber is for.
It’s here to spot issues with taxes and regulations that might impact businesses – large, medium, and small – that call Langley home, to bring them to the attention of its members, and to argue against (or for) those measures.
Recently for instance, the chamber has been closely watching as Langley Township council considers re-zoning some land along Fraser Highway for industrial use.
Redekop said that adding more industrial land is one of the most important issues in the region.
“Someone has to be making the case that these are job-creating lands,” Redekop said.
On regional issues, various chambers also team up. The Fraser Valley Business Coalition, which unified the Langley, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Mission chambers as a lobbying force in the spring of 2024, came out of regional efforts to push for faster widening of the Tarns-Canada Highway through the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.
Many of the chamber's key advocacy issues involve taxes, transportation, crime and safety, and that means a lot of working with provincial politicians.
“The province holds the bag on all of those,” Redekop said.
On the community building side of the ledger, the chamber is about ensuring its members businesses know about the various events and resources the organization offers, and letting members take part in the ones that make sense for them.
There are a wide variety of different events, from the high-profile monthly dinner meetings, to business mixers and breakfast networking meetings, to seminars on topics of local importance.
There are almost 50 events scheduled for the year, Redekop noted.
Some people will come to many events, some to only a few. Others will use the chamber’s business directory or networking to find suppliers and customers locally. The goal is to offer multiple options to its members, who are highly variable.
Redekop noted that chamber members range from self-employed folks, up to businesses with 1,000 workers.
“When you create a platform for people to come together, things can happen,” concluded Redekop.
