The Okotoks & District Chamber of Commerce is gearing up for a busy 2017.

After celebrating it's 2016 Provincial Chamber of the Year award there's another prestigious honour they're chasing.

President Andrew Gustafson says the Chamber is looking forward to a couple of Chamber AGMs.

"We're looking forward to continuing our involvement with the Alberta Chamber of Commerce, the AGM we're going to that and we're going to be at the Canadian AGM as well," he says. "One of the things with regards to the Canadian AGM that we're really excited about is our application that is spending for national accreditation. there's only four chambers in Alberta that have it."

One challenge that has hit the local business community is the increase in the minimum wage which will reach $15 an hour in October and Gustafson says it's not about the actual increase a but lack of consultation between Chambers and the Notely government.

"Chambers of Commerce across the province are not opposed to fair wages for a fair day's work and we're not opposed to an increase to the minimum wage but we're confused about is why the discrepancy between Alberta and every other province, why does Alberta have to have a huge gap in terms of how much the minimum wage is going to be?"

Gustafson also on any local business' plate is the Carbon Tax that kicks in on January 1.

"It's going to be interesting to see the impact of that, we don't have a real clear sense of what businesses are going to face with regards to that. So we'll be watching very closely in the first quarter of 2017 to see what the impact is and we'll hear that feedback from businesses and we'll pass that up to the provincial government as well. So we're we'll be watching closely and it will be interesting times."

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