Piney Regional Chamber of Commerce celebrates 10 years

The Piney Regional Chamber of Commerce is celebrating 10 years of working for and with businesses in the RM of Piney.

“It’s great. We love the support, we love giving back, we’re starting to really get some recognition…,” said Monique Chenier, secretary for the Piney Chamber of Commerce and economic development manager for Sunrise Corner Economic Development.

“It was started by some very passionate local business owners and they could see the value it could bring, and in fact, one of the things they advocated for very early on was to get an economic development manager in this region, and it’s why I have a job.”

Chenier said the goal of the PRCC is to try to provide supports and networking to help business owners grow their enterprises and meet up with like-minded entrepreneurs and business leaders in the community. “I think we’re that conduit, I guess, through that we can all connect in and help each other do better,” she said.

The PRCC has seen a growth in membership, especially in the last couple of years. Last year, the chamber signed up eight new businesses, double the amount from 2024. This January, during its AGM, it signed up five members at the meeting and two more later on, bringing its membership to 40.

Chenier attributes the increase in membership to the AGM and to the release of an e-newsletter last November. The newsletter was precipitated by a survey of business owners (present, past, and future) on what improvements they wanted to see for the chamber.

“One of the big things that came up was increased communication, more face-to-face, more phone calls, more outreach,” said Chenier.

The monthly e-newsletter contains business resources, events, and member news. The third issue is currently being finalized.

“We’ve had a 63 percent open rate on our newsletters that’s gone out so far – that’s pretty phenomenal for a newsletter… I think that all helped to raise our profile and show businesses that they can really benefit with membership and contributing back to the community,” said Chenier.

Social media engagement also grew, with more than 23,000 content views and a 7.5 percent increase in followers, according to the chamber’s website.

Another initiative of the chamber in 2025, was the launch of the Youth Entrepreneur Challenge, which was taken from Steinbach’s Chamber Challenge. With guidance from the Steinbach chamber, the Piney chamber saw five teens present their business plans to win cash prizes to help their businesses grow.

“I think they really learned about practical entrepreneurial skills,” said Chenier.

What attracts businesses to Piney is a good number of industries in agriculture and natural resources, spin-off businesses, value added manufacturing, and especially tourism, according to Chenier.

“Tourism is huge because we’ve got so much forest and outdoor recreation in this region. So, any companies that I think are interested in recreation, leisure, quality of life in those areas would do very well to come out to this area and start a business,” she said.

The spring wildfires last year had no economic impact on the RM, according to Chenier. At the time, Reeve Wayne Anderson said it was the worst wildfire he had seen in 10 years.

The fire razed one house and a couple of cottages in the 9,000 sq.km. blaze that surrounded the communities of Woodridge, Badger, St Labre, Florze, and Carrick, displacing more than 300 people. No businesses were damaged and only one warming shelter for the local snowmobile club was damaged, but was quickly replaced through fundraising.

What Chenier thinks attracts people to the PRCC is that it offers a lot of benefits regarding networking with other local businesses, monthly programming that includes professional development with guest speakers, and giving back the community with youth programing, such as the Youth Entrepreneur Challenge and with career symposiums.

Challenges that Piney businesses are curently facing, according to Chenier, include spotty cell service; poor internet service, which should be remedied soon with Valley Fiber and Star Link installing infrastructure in the municipality; and the sheer geography of the area, which covers 2,400 sq.km., leading to the chamber’s Vassar meetings to be broadcast through Zoom. Perhaps one of the most important issues facing local businesses is a lack of workers due to a lack of housing.

“It does make it challenging. From an economic development perspective, we’re working on those things as well and looking at some different options on different housing types that we don’t really have as much of out here.

Chenier said duplexes and fourplexes are being considered as new technologies come out that help with septic storage that would allow for more than single family homes on a single lot.

“There is some new technology that is being tested, so we’re waiting to hear on that and talking to some developers and seeing what kind of solutions we can offer for the different housing types.”

Looking ahead in 2026, PRCC has installed Jason Ginter as its new president, who Chenier said is a “serial entrepreneur.” She said members are looking forward to seeing what Ginter‘s vision and initiatives will be going forward.

The chamber will continue sending out its e-newsletter and holding youth entrepreneurship initiatives. It will also continue with outreach programs like its Hello Neighbour Welcome Kits and its establishment of a maker space located in Buffalo Point First Nation, in partnership with Buffalo Point Health and Wellness, where businesses can use 3D printers, Cricket printers, and heat sublimation machines, “so entrepreneurs could do trial runs of different projects or build prototypes and do that kind of thing to help develop their businesses,” Chenier said.

“And (Buffalo Point Health and Wellness) will be offering lots of programming around using that for residents regionally.”

Another initiative for the PRCC will be the continuation of the 20-unit assisted living Timberline Community Housing project in Sprague, through the South East Community Services Co-operative (a partnership between East Borderland Community Housing, the PRCC, and RM of Piney). The project will see residents living in 500 sq. ft. rooms with meals, laundry and housekeeping included. The Timberline project has been in the works for six years.

“We’ve got a few grants. We’re making progress on some architectural schematics and different projects to help us with the fundraising efforts and apply to those big grants that will hopefully get this project built in the next couple of years,” said Chenier.

Those who are interested in the Piney Regional Chamber of Commerce can visit pineyregionalchamber.ca.