Over 350 delegates from across Canada are visiting the Valhalla Inn this week for the national Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting.
Local Chamber President Charla Robinson tells us Thunder Bay is the first northern Ontario city and the smallest non-capital community to host people of a Vice-president level.
This city applied in 2016 to host the event, and beat Niagara Falls to the honour.
She adds “the Vancouver Port Authority, Air Canada, Bell Canada, Rogers, Telus and the Canadian Airports Council will be here”, with local MP’s Patty Hajdu and Don Rusnak representing the federal government.
Five days will cover topics including the changing landscape in business-Indigenous community relationships.
Robinson includes “the transport Canada changes to air crew hours and duty requirements, this is something Air Canada will be interested in”.
She adds another point the Thunder Bay chapter will bring forward is “immigration policies and changes the federal government can make to make it easier for smaller communities like Thunder Bay to be able to attract successfully immigrants to help with job openings”.
There’ll also be tours of the Thunder Bay Country Market and the Bay and Algoma Shopping District.