In The Community

Oct 2018’s Home-Based Business Bylaw

On October 2nd, 2018, I attended the council meeting that announced a potential change in regulations as they pertained to operation of Home-Based Businesses (HBB) in Bradford. Unhappy with what I heard, I spoke at that meeting before council and advised them of the impacts this change would have on HBB in Bradford, a mostly commuter town, and how if left as presented it would shut down many of our local HBBs, which are primarily run by women who have left the ‘traditional’ workforce so they could have both careers and be the primary caregivers for their children. I also worked after the meeting to make sure these proposed changes were made as public as possible so that anyone who would be affected by them could reach out to council and have their voices heard.

Council has since suggested that more research on the topic should be conducted before it’s considered again, and it has yet to be re-raised as an issue.

SWAN Bradford

I’ve been a proud SWAN member for over three years, two of which I’ve served as President. One of the things I admire most about SWAN is that the focus is on helping women build their businesses. Oftentimes women in business, especially when that business is home-based, are taken less seriously than their male counterparts. I’ve spent my two years as President promoting the group to help women in business be seen as strong business owners, and encouraged our meetings to include skill and knowledge trading. Each one of these ladies have something they can teach to other members to help each and every one of them grow as a business and a person. This enables more women to sustain their own businesses, on their own grounds, while still adding to the strength and diversity of our local economy.

Economic Development Resiliency and Recovery Strategy

In June 2020, I took part in an online discussion with a handful of other local home-based business owners and an Agriculture and Rural Economic Development Advisor to provide input on our local economy and town support for local business from a HBB point of view. My goal was to bring as many concerns that I had heard from local HHB & small business owners to light, as well as provide possible solutions the town could use to address those concerns.

The final report from that meeting, as well as other meetings conducted with owners of various sized businesses / industries, was submitted to the council in September 2020 and is being used to help the town create their 2-year Economic Recovery & Resiliency Strategy plan.

Covid-19 Business Support

During the early stages of Covid-19 while many businesses were shut down, I created /local-eats, a website with the purpose of helping restaurants that were closed for dine-in service to still receive business. At this time there were no other available lists of local places that were still open for delivery and take-out. I added in local restaurants that were open as I discovered them, and encouraged owners to reach out to be put on the list as they became open, while actively promoting it online. Though currently unneeded, I have kept it active in case restaurants are asked to close their indoor dining rooms again.

Grand openings

For the past few years I’ve made it my purpose to try to attend as many Grand Openings as possible. Covid-19 made this more difficult with the restrictions the town has set in place to limit the amount of people present, but as a councillor I plan to return to attending as many of these as I can to support the development of our business community.

Having been a recipient of a Home-Based Business Grand Opening, I can say that the feeling it gives knowing the town, the BBT, SWAN Bradford, and many many others are rallying behind you and your success is absolutely incredible, and I want every new business that starts in our town to have that same feeling. It is also this support given by the town which I hope will encourage larger industry to consider setting down roots in our town, thus adding to our community and reducing the number of our citizens that have to commute daily for work.

Bradford Board of Trade

In July 2019, I joined the Bradford Board of Trade’s Board of Directors with the goal to further support our local business community. During this time I helped create & implement new policies and procedures to work on bringing the BBT into a new era of efficiency, worked on finding new and invigorating ways to assist our community, and helped organize, implement, and attended BBT events.

Working with the Board of Directors is a lot like working with council – you have multiple people with differing ideas on how you can help a community, and the goal is to sit down, discuss, ask questions, and see how we can combine ideas and make the best choices for the town as a whole.  

Involvement with local charities

During my time with SWAN Bradford, I’ve had the opportunity to get involved with and learn more about our local charities. Having spoken firsthand with the (former) head of the Bradford Community Meal, the President of Helping Hand Food Bank, the Coordinators of A Hand Up Clothing Room & The Hub, and the Program Director for LOFT Community Services I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about how our local charities work, what sustains them, and how our community can better support them. I’ve been involved with the organization and implementation of two Fundraisers (the last raising almost $7,000 for CrossTrainers Canada), and worked on a PPE drive after our 2020 fundraiser event had to be put on hold due to Covid.

As a Ward Councillor my goal is to touch base with our local charities on a regular basis to make sure that they are getting the help and support they need, not just from council but from our community as a whole.