The Cranbrook Chamber of Commerce had their policy on Remediation Standards adopted at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Annual General Meeting, for homes that were previously used for the production of legal and illegal drugs.
Attending the Canadian Chamber of Commerce AGM September 21st to 23rd, 2019, in Saint John, representatives from the Cranbrook Chamber presented their policy.
The policy was previously presented at the BC Chamber AGM back in May, which was unanimously supported by the BC Chamber membership.
“The importance of this policy has been heightened significantly over the past year as the Federal Government moved to legalize cannabis and allow citizens to grow up to four cannabis plants in their homes, yet failed to provide any guidance on how to prevent the potential damage caused by growing cannabis in residential homes,” said Christine Hoechsmann, Vice President of the Cranbrook Chamber. “We are asking the Federal Government to take the lead on creating a minimum remediation standard for homes to bring some certainty to the industry and allow banks and insurance companies to rely on this standard to bring homes back into the housing stock without penalty.”
Hoechsmann said there is a large stigma in the industry around homes that had any growing activity, legal or not. No longer able to access fair mortgage rates and get fair market value insurance, Hoechsmann said it all puts homeowners at risk of higher mortgage rate and higher insurance rates, let alone potential liability issues.
76 total policies were put forward by at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce AGM, while just four were adopted, including the Cranbrook Chamber’s policy on Remediation Standards. The policy passed with 94.1% acceptance and will now become a part of the 2020 Canadian Chambers of Commerce Policy Manual. Altogether, 323 different Chambers were represented at the AG, 71 of which were from British Columbia.
While at the AGM, the Cranbrook Chamber of Commerce also took the time to meet with Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, who opened the event by challenging all Provinces to remove trade barriers and bolster inter-provincial trade.
“This was a unique opportunity to meet with Alberta’s Premier and personally invite him to the Cranbrook area to meet with our members to talk about inter-provincial trade,” said Kristin Parsons, Executive Director of the Cranbrook Chamber. “We were delighted to have Mr. Kenney take us up on our invitation and look forward to hosting Mr. Kenney in our community very soon.”
The 2020 Canadian Chamber of Commerce AGM will be held in Ottawa September 26th to 28th, 2020.
