Every few months or so I get a note from Eamonn asking me for a piece for the upcoming edition of this fine publication and always my initial reaction is “but sure what news have I?”  However, I then remind myself what a fantastic opportunity this is to reach members and potential members and try and impress on them (that would be you!) the merits of becoming a part of our organization either in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton or vancouver. I then get the proverbial lead out and start writing.

The Chamber’s raison d’etre is to engender connections between like-minded people from a very diverse range of backgrounds. By like minded I mean people who whether they are self employed, employed or unemployed, are keen to make a go of things and succeed in their chosen field of endeavors, while having a bit of fun along the way. 

Like all immigrants or descendants of immigrants, we are not here in Canada just to make up the numbers! - we are here to realize our respective ambitions and potentials and it is my belief that through membership of an organization like the Ireland Canada Chamber of Commerce we can assist each other greatly in getting there.  You can never know too many people and you never know when that extra connection will come in handy.  In that regard the six national Chambers will soon be rolling out a Canada wide green pages which will provide members with access to a database of upwards of 400 Irish Canadians all across Canada in a variety of fields.

Enough of the serious stuff, it’s also a lot of fun. We had a fantastic night in PJ’s for our annual Christmas party in December. We returned to the scene of the crime in late January for a very well attended evening we co-hosted with Michael Barry and John Galway of the Toronto Irish Film Festival. We had a panel of speakers that enlightened us all on various aspects of the movie business – the business of movies.  It was a fascinating look behind the curtains of a multi-billion dollar industry, one in which many Irish people in Toronto are employed and one with very strong Trans-Atlantic connections.  On that note please check out the TIrFF at the Bell Lightbox cinema on March 9^th & 10^th.

Next up is the Irish Person of the Year lunch on Sunday March 4^th which again we are honoured to co-host with the IPOY committee.  This year’s honoree is a truly exceptional Irish Canadian, John Furlong, the driving force behind the Vancouver Olympics and now Chairman of Own the Podium.  John addressed the Toronto Chamber three years ago in the run up to the 2010 games and is truly an inspiring individual. 

Although not a book on leadership per se, his book “Patriot Hearts” gives an incredible blueprint on how to successfully lead an organization.  He has unquestionably “made Canada better” and an absolutely stellar example of what can be accomplished…by us Dubliners! Just kidding, hopefully many of you will avail of the opportunity on March 4^th to come out and be inspired by this remarkable man.  If you missed it, buy the book! 

The Chamber also congratulates Cathy Murphy on her appointment as Executive Director of the newly established Irish Canadian Immigration Centre. With your support, we are contributing the net proceeds of our annual fundraising draw (taking place June 21^st) to support the Centre in 2012. Draw details are outlined in this this publication.

As we begin our 20^th anniversary year, we are being honoured on St. Patrick’s Day with a visit from Eamon Gilmore TD, Leader of the Labour Party, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade. An Tanaiste will speak at a special breakfast sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and hosted by the Ireland Canada Chamber of Commerce. This will be a great kickoff to La le Padraig.

Compliments of the Season.

I came in as President this time last year, not having been on the committee in previous year so personally felt it took some time to get settled in to the role.  I am looking forward to the coming year with a little more confidence and moreover clarity as to what we need to try and achieve.  In terms of the year gone by highlights included the following:

New Arrivals Group.  Declan, Carolyn and Deirdre’s committee did great work on this front and certainly in the early part of the year this was a key area where we as a Chamber could point to achievement and activity.  The highlight being the night in January at Grace O’Malley’s with over 300 attendees. There were many other initiatives hosted by Declan & Co including skiing, and we had approx 20 or 30 join up as members because of this. 

I think this work directly lead to the realization of the need for a more formal Immigration support structure for new arrivals and between this, and Eamonn planting ideas in Ottawa ears, we now are close to seeing the launch of the Irish Canada Immigration Centre here in Toronto, the “ICIC”.   The Chamber is one of 4 founding groups behind this initiative, and I have asked Declan to be our rep on this Board. Eamonn is acting Chairman. It remains to be seen to what extent the Chamber new arrivals committee will continue in the coming year – in theory it is covered off by the ICIC but it would be good to continue some efforts to ensure the Chamber pays attention to the needs of the new arrivals and moreover positions itself as something worth belonging to.

Speaker Series – we struggled in the early part of year to line up speakers. We did have a fairly firm line of communication with David McWilliams but partly because he was considering a run in the Irish elections, it came to nothing. Thankfully since then we managed to line up 4 well attended and well received events in relatively informal settings at PJ O Brien’s; namely Niall McGee, Eddie O’Sullivan, Dominic Hannigan T.D., and most recently the Atlantic Corridor Trade Group. 

This format worked very well and although we lost small amounts of on all, it was money well spent. We can tweak the format to break even if needed going forward, and also will seek a sponsor.  Special thanks to Kyle and Matthew for lining up the 1st two speakers. Certainly for me Eddie O’Sullivan’s speech was one of the highlights of the year for me. It hit the sweet spot of having relevance to business, and an Irish angle, and just an all round very impressive event.

Other events of note in the past year – last year’s Quiz organised by Michael & Diarmuid was  successful as always, as evidenced by early sold out status for this year’s event; also the Golf Day in June, which in part due to some great weather, was one of our best ever. Special thanks to Eamonn and the many volunteers we had on the day for that.  Finally in March we had a visit from the ICBA in Dublin, which mostly thanks to leg work on the visitor’s part, was a great success.  We co-hosted with E.I. a breakfast for them, Parade Grand Marshal Michael O’Muircheartaigh and our members which went off very well; special thanks to EI for that.

In terms of the year ahead, I would see the following as areas where we need to make progress on:

These objectives are likely no different than would be outlined at any AGM in recent years but I hope to assign one or two Board members to champion the specific areas with a view to moving the needle on all fronts in the coming year. 

In conclusion I want to thank Eamonn, our Executive Director, also now close to his 20th year for his hard work, good humour and good advice. A big thank you to the Board and a special mention to outgoing directors, Diarmuid Donnelly and Robyn Meredith. 

I believe the Chamber has an important role to play in the fabric of the lives of those that choose to get involved with us. The majority of our members were not born or educated in Canada and hence do not have the natural network that one would have if this was the case. The Chamber can go a long way towards filling that gap.  Similarly for Canadian born members we offer a great way of expanding one’s network. Given the continuing immigration from Ireland we have a great opportunity to increase our membership and our relevance and in so doing, drive greater value back to our members, which ultimately must be the overarching goal of all that we do. 

Thank You

The Ireland Canada Business Association (ICBA) was founded in 1978 with the mandate of promoting and developing trade and industrial links between Ireland and Canada. The organisation is a non-profit bilateral trade association (effectively acting as a quasi chamber of commerce). The Patron of the Association is the Canadian Ambassador to Ireland, His Excellency, Loyola Hearn.