Alex Mitchell

Great to celebrate so many incredible businesses at the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards!

Last night we honoured the outstanding members of our local business community at the 29th annual Abbotsford Business Excellence Awards.

Congratulations to the winners and nominees! We are proud of all you have accomplished and we are inspired by your homegrown success stories.

Thank you to the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce and the Abbotsford News for presenting these awards and supporting our local businesses.

The Chamber network in BC is strong!

What an honour to be included in Drishti Magazine's 30 Influential Women issue! It was a joy to reflect on motherhood and community impact since coming back to the office post-maternity leave. New perspectives, new challenges, and gratitude for all of the support that makes it all possible!
Raising a daughter has forever changed my views on leadership and I'm in awe of all the mama's making amazing things happen.

🇨🇦 Check out the article, and see the features on an incredible lineup of inspiring women across BC:
https://drishtimagazine.com/alex-mitchell-leading-with-purpose-a-courageous-advocate-for-canadian-trade-business-and-economic-growth/

Fresh off the Canadian Chamber delegation to Washington D.C. on manufacturing and supply chains, I had the opportunity to sit down with The Hon. Ed Fast, PC KC for a conversation on tariffs and the Canada-U.S. trade relationship for the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce.

Ed served as Canada’s Minister of International Trade from 2011 to 2015, leading negotiations on free trade agreements with the European Union, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Ukraine, and South Korea. He is the retiring Member of Parliament for Abbotsford and he joined us at the Abbotsford Chamber for one of his final public events as an M.P.

One of Ed's comments stood out to me: "Over the past decade, Canada has lacked a coherent economic growth strategy and has largely exhausted its fiscal capacity to respond to exogenous global shocks. Trump’s erratic and ahistorical trade policies only compound these vulnerabilities. It is incumbent upon our leaders to recognize the risks ahead and take decisive steps to shield our economy from the worst of his policies."

It's clear that we should prepare for significant economic hardship in the months ahead, but that there is an opportunity to weather that storm by addressing some of the barriers to prosperity that have plagued our country for many years from barriers to interprovincial trade and slow permitting and approvals.