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New Regina Chamber of Commerce CEO will focus on taxes, feedback

New Regina & District Chamber of Commerce CEO Mike Tate is focused on ensuring rising taxes in the city won't close down more businesses.
mike-tate-jan-9-2025
Mike Tate stands in the Regina & District Chamber of Commerce board room after being named the new CEO.

REGINA - The beginning of the new year brought change to the Regina & District Chamber of Commerce as their new CEO, Mike Tate, officially took over the role.

Reflecting on his first week, Tate said he’s been surprised "in a really positive way just how many media outlets have reached out [to me and] how excited people are to meet me." He called the role "amplifying" and talked about how he is excited to be the voice of over 1,000 members.

In terms of taking on the role, Tate talked about why he wanted to become the next CEO. "I just love this community. I love our city. [I have] been a part of a number of different businesses both on the national level and the local level. So, I feel like I bring a lot of experience to the table for our membership, too. I guess enjoy, and hopefully, we can support each other. But this is just a great city with untapped potential."

When talking about untapped potential, Tate believes it’s important to understand what other countries or other city's need that Regina has. He mentioned how Premier Scott Moe often refers to food, fuel and fertilizer as the resources the province has.

So, for Tate, it’s figuring out "how do we align our businesses [and] to take advantage of that. How can we support them and create a competitive environment where they want to invest in Regina? And we can track that investment where people want to move here to work. How do we retain our current talents and attract future talent?"

In Tate’s mind, a business cannot grow if you do not have the people, so he believes the most important thing to focus on is how to make the city more attractive, from infrastructure to amenities.

Over the week he’s been the CEO, Tate has heard from numerous residents about one specific topic, which is how to approach the downtown area, whether it's rezoning, repurposing, or creating more residential areas. Tate acknowledged there are infrastructure and safety concerns in the downtown area but gave credit to the Regina Police Service (RPS) for bringing in the new Alternative Response Officers (ARO's), which will make Regina's downtown more attractive for people to visit.

One interesting note Tate made is the potential to build attractions and condos downtown, which will increase the city's revenue. 

He references how "[in] 2016 when Edmonton built Rogers Place residential condo sales increased by 60 per cent." Tate used this example as what infrastructure can do, which will bring opportunity for Regina in the distant future.

Seeing as Tate has a new prominent role in the city, he will be meeting soon with new Regina Mayor Chad Bachynski and all the councillors, which primarily consist of new individuals.

Tate spoke about how the new mayor and councillors are "gonna bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm and curiosity and new ideas [with] creativity to City Hall, and that's a good thing like change is good, and obviously Regina voters wanted some change, and that was clear at the polls so [I am] really looking forward to getting to know them more."

As to what Tate is looking forward to discussing with the city politicians, he mentioned responsible tax increases.

Tate mentioned how "taxes [is] so important to [a] business [in terms of budgeting and affordability]." He added, "they can't grow. they can't continue to expand. They can't continue to hire if they're crippled by tax hikes that you know aren't manageable right. We all understand there's gonna be increases in tax. That's the reality. But they have to be manageable for businesses to grow and thrive."

When asked if it’s hard to find a balance for increasing taxes, Tate called it "very hard." He mentioned that "because people want infrastructure. They want new roads. They want all the things that [will improve their quality of life, and] of course they want that done right. That gives people pride in their community, and it gives you a better quality life. Of course they want that, but to balance the [taxes], you know [with] all these new infrastructure potential projects [that] are on the table and being discussed today along, with you know, the needs of the important things that are under the ground and on the surface that you have to maintain. That is a significant challenge [that will be presented at meetings] for, you know, the new mayor and council."

In terms of his goals for the first year as the new CEO, Tate feels, "we [the Regina & District Chamber of Commerce] need to really refine and understand member feedback in terms of the value that they see in terms of the chamber."

Tate noted how the Chamber of Commerce usually has surveys where people can voice their opinions, but he wants to have a more effective way to approach feedback so there can be improvement in the percentage of respondents through their mentorship.

 

 

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