Western Standard - August 04, 2026


The Calgary Chamber under Deborah Yedlin — who does it really represent？


Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

145.78

Word count

778

Sentence count

44


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 The referendum campaign on Alberta's place in Canada is now underway over the next few months.
00:00:06.400 What have you been hearing from the business community about this?
00:00:08.940 It's really a distraction and people are already facing enough issues, whether it's rising costs,
00:00:14.700 whether it is supply chain issues, whether it is Kuzma trying to get goods to market.
00:00:21.040 There are myriad issues that business is already facing and now this is going to occupy another part of their brain.
00:00:27.120 For generations, Calgary's Chamber of Commerce has been seen as the voice of local business.
00:00:32.240 They advocate for lower taxes, less government regulation, safer streets, and policies that
00:00:37.520 make it easier for entrepreneurs to succeed. But over the past several years, the Calgary
00:00:42.640 Chamber of Commerce has increasingly become a voice in debates extending far beyond traditional
00:00:48.080 business concerns. At the center of that transformation is its president and CEO, Deborah Yedlin.
00:00:56.480 For more than 20 years, Yedlin worked as a columnist and commentator for outlets,
00:01:01.780 including the Calgary Herald, the Globe and Mail, and the Financial Post.
00:01:06.440 She also appeared regularly on CBC, CTV, and other broadcasters,
00:01:11.460 discussing business, energy, finance, and politics.
00:01:15.360 Yet her columns were rarely cautious.
00:01:18.920 Yedlin took strong opinions on major public policy debates,
00:01:22.680 including Alberta's energy royalty system.
00:01:25.940 Her commentary attracted both praise and criticism.
00:01:29.420 Well, I think everybody stands on the sidelines.
00:01:31.860 They want to see what happens.
00:01:33.540 They want to see what could unfold over the summer.
00:01:37.700 And dollars are stranded, as the CEO of TC Energy often says,
00:01:41.720 and we all say this, uncertainty is the enemy of investment.
00:01:45.240 Yellen's response to the independence discussion was blunt.
00:01:48.640 We don't need this.
00:01:49.560 Like I said at the beginning, we don't need to introduce this element of uncertainty.
00:01:53.500 And I think if you look at it in four buckets, what we have is, you know, we have to attract talent.
00:01:57.700 What does this do for our ability to attract talent?
00:01:59.560 What does it do for our ability to finance projects?
00:02:01.560 What does it do to economic growth?
00:02:03.060 When Daniel Smith proposed the Alberta Somerity Act during the 2022 United Conservative Party leadership race,
00:02:10.280 Yedlin also dismissed the idea in unusually direct terms.
00:02:14.180 What we're hearing from our members is that they're concerned about the uncertainty and the inability to attract capital that will cause us pause from an investment perspective.
00:02:28.140 The organization has not merely warned about the result of a possible vote.
00:02:32.420 It has argued that the referendum process itself could cause lasting economic damage, regardless of the outcome.
00:02:40.220 In November 2022, Yedlin called on Calgarians to take control of the city's story
00:02:45.280 and stop allowing the outdated stereotypes to define it.
00:02:50.980 Calgary has expanded its technology sector, invested into arts and culture,
00:02:55.640 and become one of Canada's most diverse major cities.
00:02:59.000 But many outsiders still associate it mainly with oil and gas,
00:03:03.280 corporate culture, cowboys, and the Calgary stampedes.
00:03:06.820 The Chamber wants local leaders and businesses to promote a more modern image built around
00:03:12.200 startups, cultural investment, diversity, and quality of life. But that effort also raises
00:03:18.140 a larger question. Who gets to decide what Calgary's identity should be? According to
00:03:23.260 the Chamber, it represents approximately 1,700 businesses and organizations. Regional economic
00:03:30.620 data shows that nearly 58,000 businesses operate in Calgary. That means the Chamber's membership
00:03:37.500 represents roughly 3% of businesses in the city. Many Chamber members are among Calgary's largest
00:03:44.220 employers, banks, energy companies, developers, law firms, and professional service organizations.
00:03:50.840 But Calgary's business community is much broader than the Chamber's membership.
00:03:54.860 Tens of thousands of family-old restaurants, neighborhood retailers, contractors, manufacturers,
00:04:01.860 tradespeople, and sole proprietors operate outside the organization.
00:04:06.540 Their concerns may be very different from those of the city's corporate establishments.
00:04:12.140 Rather than functioning primarily as a broad advocate for businesses of every size,
00:04:17.300 the Calgary Chamber increasingly appears to operate as the policy voice of Calgary's
00:04:22.440 corporate establishments.
00:04:24.600 Whether the issue is Alberta independence, Calgary's image, climate policy, or immigration,
00:04:30.740 the Chamber consistently views the province through the priorities of the institutional
00:04:35.020 stability and corporate policy.
00:04:37.140 They may not reflect the full range of views across Calgary's wider business community.
00:04:41.680 For many Calgarians, the Chamber no longer appears to speak from Main Street.
00:04:46.380 It speaks from the boardroom.
00:04:48.660 That may explain why an organization created to represent Calgary's business community
00:04:52.680 community increasingly finds itself at the center of political and cultural debates that
00:04:57.800 many business owners never asked it to enter. The question is not whether the Calgary Chamber has
00:05:03.240 the right to take those positions. The question is whether it should continue to be treated as
00:05:08.200 the voice of Calgary's business as a whole.