Chamber president on the hard end of some searing comments

By Pepper Parr

June 15th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

Terry Caddo, President of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce sent out an announcement saying:  The Burlington Chamber of Commerce wants to hear from you!

He is getting a response – not quite what he was is expecting was the view we got after looking at some of the social media that is floating around out there.

The current kafuffle has to do with what the Chamber did and didn’t do with the recent Walk a Mile in their Shoes event; a fund raiser for the Halton Women’s Shelter.

Peter van Dyke said in a tweet that “the Chamber should have made a donation before they published a picture of the event”.

Terry Caddo was given the option of wearing high heels or runners – he took what he saw as the safer choice.

Caddo explains that the Chamber has 58 not for profit members and that his organization cannot raise funds for every one of them. Cadoo said “we paid our registration fee”.

What Caddo is not hearing are comments like” “enough is enough” – “the man is a misogynist”, “gave himself an award at a recent Chamber event”; “know nothing about diversity”

No one wants to go on the record with their comments other than to say that the Chamber Board of Directors will do nothing to rein Caddo in.

Caddo adds that the Burlington Chamber brought in 137 new members last year and is on track to recruit 175 this year.  The Burlington Chamber is reported to be the fastest growing Chamber in Canada

Those with complaints that sound serious enough and say they have reached out to the board with very little in the way of positive responses.

Randy Smallbone, Chair of the Chamber Board, told the Gazette that there is a small group that is not happy with the direction the Chamber is taking and some of its practices.  He said he is looking for a way to reach out to those people and work at repairing relationships.  He has his work cut out for himself.

One of the biggest complaints is that the Chamber removes any comment people leave on their web site and or Facebook page that is less than complimentary. Smallbone said that if a comment is not factual it will not remain on their website.

The people who lead the organizations that benefit everyone in Burlington should all be singing from the same hymn book.

At this point it doesn’t look is as if they have hymn books.