On a crisp morning in Atlantic Canada, Preston Pardy unlocks the doors of Related Holdings Ltd. on High Street in Grand Falls-Windsor, NL, and Doug Robertson with Venn Innovation on St. George Boulevard, Moncton, NB is preparing for an exciting day to help tech start-ups get to market. They may never meet, but they’re already connected, through a network that has their back: the chamber of commerce family, we call it the chamberhood, 91 members strong, representing more than 16,000 businesses across the Atlantic region.

That network is the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce (ACC) and its local chambers and boards of trade in communities from Port aux Basques to Charlottetown, Miramichi to Yarmouth. For more than 125 years, chambers in this region have been the “voice of business,” helping create the conditions for companies to start, grow, and hire.

To understand why that matters, it helps to think about how the economy works, in plain language. Jobs and prosperity don’t start in government; they start when someone takes a risk, opens a café, buys a truck, invests in new equipment, hires their first employee. This is the private sector, and it’s the engine of growth. When businesses do well, they create jobs, pay wages, buy from local suppliers, and generate the tax revenues that fund hospitals, schools, roads, and public services.

Government’s role is different, but essential. They set the rules of the game so that businesses can thrive. They should focus on competitive taxes, smart regulations, reliable infrastructure, access to workers and markets. As Don Mills and David Campbell argue in Toward Prosperity: The Transformation of Atlantic Canada’s Economy, Atlantic Canada needs to embrace a bolder ambition, with policy that encourages investment, immigration, innovation, and energy development instead of relying on others to “pay our way.”

This is exactly where chambers and boards of trade come in. A single small business doesn’t have the
time or resources to monitor every budget, trade agreement, labour law, or tariff threats. But we do! The ACC listens to local chambers, gathers the concerns and ideas of employers in all four provinces, and takes them to provincial and federal decision-makers, from internal trade barriers to competitive electricity rates, to workforce and immigration policy.

At the same time, local chambers work on the ground, helping entrepreneurs navigate red tape, connecting members to each other, sharing market intelligence, and offering practical programs that reduce costs or open new opportunities. In a region where nearly all businesses are small or medium-sized, that support can be the difference between closing the doors and planning the next expansion.

The story of the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce network is really the story of Atlantic Canada’s future, thousands of business owners, innovators, and community leaders choosing to build prosperity here at home and a powerful regional network standing beside them, making sure their voices are heard and the conditions are right for them to succeed.

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