Business. -___

The Saanich Peninsula Chamber
of Commerce wants local govern-
ments to fund its tourism promo-
tion activities, otherwise it vows to
consider getting out of the busi-
ness altogether.

“We have to re-examine our
mandate as a chamber and indicate
to various people, including the
municipalities, that we are going to
reassess Our role in tourism,”
chamber president Rick Roberts
said last week.

“We're putting them on notice

that we're going to seriously
examine this.”
- The chamber’s board of direct-
ors has approved a recommenda-
tion stating the chamber request
from the Districts of North and
Central Saanich and the Town of
Sidney “sufficient funding to
maintain and operate the Info
Centres.

Further, the recommendation
said, “Should sufficient funding
not be made available, the cham-
ber discontinue operating the
Tourist Information Centres.”

Roberts did not know how much
money the chamber needs to run
the centres. However, a chamber
committee will begin to ponder

Opportunities
forstudent
entrepreneurs

The Saanich Peninsula Chamber
of Commerce reminds budding
entrepreneurs it’s possible for
them to apply for loans under the
Student Venture Loan Program.

Chamber general manager Mari-

slyn Lee said applications can be
“picked up at the chamber office.

Once a student applies, he or she
‘is interviewed by a committee of
business people, who make a rec-
ommendation on the application
_and forward it to the government.
She said one application has
already been considered.
' The program is sponsored by the

"3 “Ministry of Regional-and Eco-

momic Development. It offers
‘interest-free loans to students who
‘want to operate a business over the
“summer.

The program provides up to
$3,000 for an individual venture,
and $5,000 for a partnership.

Applicants must be returning to
high school, college or university
on a full-time basis, be at least 15
years old and be eligible to do
business in Canada.

The bulk of the business must
be carried out between April 1 and
Sept. 30, be operated in B.C. and
be started within two weeks of
receiving the loan.

| For more information and an

application form, call the chamber
office at 656-3616.

.Chamber threatens to close info centres

the issue and bring forward a
request to the three councils soon,
he said.

“We want to g0 with a workable
proposal for them to look at,” he
said, adding the vast majority of
chambers on Vancouver Island get
assistance to run tourist centres.

He said chamber members are
concemed a lot of time and much
of the chamber’s budget is spent
on tourism “to the detriment of

other things we could be doing for

the business community.”

The chamber maintains two Info
Centres on the Peninsula — on the
Pat Bay Highway just north of
town and on First Street near the
Washington State ferry terminal.

“We receive free publications,

we receive wages for summer
Students, but there are no other
cosis that we can recover for our
tourism centre operations,” said
chamber general manager Marilyn
ILS&.

~ Tourism is a valuable thrust (of
the chamber’s work), but if there
is nO compensation for doing it,
you really have to question
whether it’s valued in the com-
munity,” she said.

She said local councils will be
notified by letter of the chamber’s
position shortly. It’s too late for
funding to be considered in this
year’s municipal budget discus-
sions, but the chamber hopes the
issue will be debated during next
year’s deliberations. —

Saturday sailpast will
recognize anniversary

A joint sailpast of two Penin-
sula-based yacht clubs is set for
Saturday.

The Sidney-North Saanich
Yacht Club, which is celebrating
its 10th anniversary. this year, and
the Capital City Yacht Club will
hold the sailpast at 2 p.m. off the
foot of Beacon Avenue.

About 100 yachts from each
club are expected to take part,
including power and sail yachts.

For Capital City, the event is
patterned after a Naval parade to
honor the club’s Commodore,
Barry Bennett of Sidney.

For the Sidney-North Saanich
club, the event also recognizes the
10th anniversary.

The club was established by. a
handful of sailors, mostly from
Sidney. They decided to place a
newspaper advertisement asking if
anyone was interested in forming a
club.

About 40 people were expected
at a meeting, but 200 showed up.

Following drafting of a constitu-
tion, a clubhouse was found at
Blue Heron Basin. The first gen-
eral meeting took place Oct. 6,
1981.

Today, membership has grown to
over 400, the club has organized a
junior program and also holds
major racing events, including the
Patos Island Classic and the Fall
Regatta.

TheReview

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