Personalities behind the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce (1994-1997)
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Union Station is the inter-city railway station for Winnipeg, Manitoba. Union Station opened in 1911.
John Granelli (1994)
For John Granelli, his year was filled with some regret — since it was the year the Winnipeg Jets left for good. At the same time, the whole city came together and there was huge community spirit.
On the national scene, the opposite was happening the country was being pulled apart as a result of the referendum on Quebec separation. The Chamber spent many hours talking about it, Granelli says.
At The Chamber level, there was also change. Bill Draper, The Chamber’s general manager, retired and Shelley Morris stepped in, faced with a huge challenge of introducing new business processes to ensure a more profitable organization.
“One of the highlights of my term was going to an event with Shelley. She was introduced as Shelley Granelli. Laurie Mustard wrote a whole column about it in The Sun.”
Trevor Hayden (1995)
When he thought things couldn’t get worse, Trevor Hayden discovered they could—not only were the Jets leaving, it looked like Boeing would also leave. He had his hands full, but he enjoyed his time at The Chamber.
“Working with the people at The Chamber was just such an honour. Shelley was a joy to work with. I stole her from The Chamber,” Hayden says, explaining they later went into business together.
During his year, he did a lot of traveling both through The Chamber— he made several trips to Japan related to the Kansai-Canada West Business Forum — and as president of the National Coffee Service Association, flying to Puerto Rico for weekend board meetings.
If he has one regret, it’s choosing not to meet Prince Charles. “I broke my ankle and I didn’t want to show any weakness… I didn’t want to be seen on crutches. I wanted The Chamber in a position of strength.”
Carol-Ann Borody Siemens (1997)
The whole issue of Aboriginal business and employment was front and centre for Carol-Ann Borody Siemens. The Chamber realized the Aboriginal community would play a key role in future job creation and things needed to be in place.
Downtown revitalization and the Capital Region were also key issues. She met with then Premier Gary Filmon on the Capital Region to discuss the need to work co-operatively. She also met with Paul Martin, as federal finance minister, to send the message that The Chamber didn’t want revenues to go into a general pot.
“When you’re chair, you have this network behind you. When you speak, you’re very conscious of the members behind you.”
For her, The Chamber was a big part of her life.
“The role (of chair) is very powerful anyway, but things ramped up exponentially when I got married in September and then passed the gavel later that month,” Borody-Siemens says, adding she met her husband Peter through The Chamber and got married in The Chamber Club.
She’ll never forget the unbelievable effort the staff put into her wedding, especially the ice sorbet cups that looked like teardrops.
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December 5th, 2009
Personalities behind the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce (1991-1993)
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One of the Nationalistic Park in Manitoba. Fort Garry was commemorated as the place where treaty #1 was signed between the Ojibwa and Swampy Cree of Manitoba, and the Crown.
Steve Childerhouse (1991)
“I was the bad cop, and Sandy (Hopkins — incoming president) was the good cop,” says Steve
Childerhouse, who admits as Chamber president he was often in “attack mode.”
The memory is painful, but relations with City Hall soured after he was accused of calling the mayor a liar during a rally on the steps of the Legislature. Speaking out against an increase in city council pensions, things got misconstrued when he used the quote “there are lies, damn lies and statistics.”
He remains proud, however, of his efforts to get The Chamber onside in support of Sunday shopping.
“The board had defeated Sunday shopping. They couldn’t make up their minds because of the religious aspect and the day off versus more opportunities for businesses to be available to the public. In my term, they finally said OK, we’ll support it.”
He also got The Chamber involved in CAP-IT, the Coalition Against Perpetually Increasing Taxes.
“It was not just The Chamber complaining about taxes. The Consumers Association, the Manitoba Society of Seniors, the CFIB and maybe one or two other organizations came together to formulate a plan and spoke out in the media. What resulted was a city review looking at business and property taxes. Later, the city froze property taxes.”
Sandy Hopkins (1992)
“Others have told me the biggest impact I had was on the relationship with City Hall. The change of tone, working co-operatively to make Winnipeg a better place to live,” says Sandy Hopkins.
However, he personally cites the role he played with respect to Sunday shopping and the creation of the Bannatyne Fund.
“The Chamber was often working from a position of instinct rather than from solid information. The board needed better intelligence, but it didn’t have the money. We set up the Bannatyne Fund with the idea that we’d fund research projects — one important study per year.”
Hopkins was also instrumental in changing the organizational structure of The Chamber — so the senior staff person became the president.
“There was tremendous resistance from the older presidents, who came out en masse to the AGM, attended by some 200 people. As president, I chaired the meeting. I stepped down from the podium to argue the case. My successor, Terry Cristall, became the first ever board chair.”
Along with that, The Chamber’s year-end changed.
Ironically, it was during his term that The Chamber actively promoted the Jimmy Carter Build for Habitat for Humanity. More than a decade later, he is CEO of Habitat for Humanity Winnipeg.
Terry Cristall (1993)
When it came to issues, “the big one” for him was Sunday shopping, says Terry Cristall,,
“It was definitely fascinating and somewhat entertaining with so many votes against us at City Hall.”
To try to persuade the powers that be that the public was behind The Chamber on Sunday shopping, an article was put in the newspaper with a ballot to clip and send to The Chamber, he says.
“We got bags and bags of mall coming in just before Christmas. So someone dressed up as Santa, took all the bags and delivered them to City Hall.”
The campaign was successful and in 1994, Sunday shopping was introduced.
On another front, The Chamber opened the doors to businesses in other countries, very aggressively pursuing relationships with countries such as India.
“For me, personally, discovering how much activity was going on in the province — the diversity of economic opportunities — was incredible,” Cristall says. “Mixing in the community and providing service, you start to bond and understand the potential synergies. The best people I’ve n in the world are here, and I’ve traveled a fair bit.”
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Personalities behind the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce (1986-1989)
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John Doole (1986)
John Doodle
At 84, John Doole feels terrific, despite having developed cancer 2 1/2 years ago, which he finds “a bit of a nuisance.” However, he still does the Argentine tango really well, he says.
Doole says the big issue of his day was the contract for the CF-18 fighter aircraft. The Pawley government was in power and despite viewing him as “a caged tiger” — a right-wing conservative — they asked him to go to Ottawa with them to meet with Mulroney and his cronies.
In a silky voice, Doole says: “Mulroney was as smooth as a velvet jacket.” Some of the Manitoba delegation got a bit raucous, but Muironey handled them in a very diplomatic, toned down way.
“It (lobbying) didn’t work. We lost the contract.”
The CF-18 issue probably characterized Doole’s term at The Chamber.
“I was an impatient president. A hell of a lot of issues came up, including the payroll tax. I adopted the attitude that there was such a need for instant reaction, I wouldn’t wait until the next meeting for the (Chamber) council’s position. I’d tell the media what I’d think and if the council disagreed, to hell with them. I never had a single complaint.”
Being Chamber president took up a lot of time — what with breakfast meetings and dinner meetings with rubber chicken.
But he made some really good friends, and to this day, he maintains a nodding acquaintance with NDP Premier Gary Doer, involved back then in the CF-18 issue.
Dorothy Dobbie (1987)
Dorothy Dobbie
“It wasn’t important to me, but it was significant to the business community,” says Dorothy Dobbie, who became The Chamber’s first female president in 115 years.
“At the time, it (The Chamber) really was a male enclave.”
Women, in general, tend to be more direct, and as Chamber president, she didn’t pull any punches, Dobbie says. The Pawley government called her “the unofficial opposition.”
She came to blows with them over the introduction of the payroll tax.
Michael Decter, who’s now married to Pamela Wallin, came up with the idea that would see The Chamber protest the tax by sending out 20,000 payroll stuffers, which read: “If your pay cheque is smaller today, you can blame it on the payroll tax.”
Later, the Conservative government would fail to live up to its promise to scrap the tax, and it continues to be an issue today.
Michael Hill (1988)
Michael Hill
“The real issue of that day was free trade — NAFTA. It was a huge debate across the land,” says Michael Hill.
“We hosted a number of educational events — I don’t know whether educational is the right word — over the issue of free trade to countermand those against it. We even hosted the prime minister.”
Being president was a wonderful experience, he adds, saying it’s something he would never have experienced if he hadn’t got involved in the first place.
“It was a fun year. I met a lot of great people and continue to bump into those people. I met some of the most fascinating, influential business leaders in the community.”
It became a standard joke: “I didn’t see your picture in the post office, you must have been a president of The Chamber.”
Herb Middlestead (1989)
Herb Middlestead
The talk around The Chamber table when he was president was focused on taxation — make changes to the GST and lower fuel and business taxes.
“We wanted the government to make it (the GST) visible, for there to be a minimum number of exemptions and for it to be integrated with the PST,” says Herb Middlestead.
“We also wanted to reverse the deterioration of Manitoba’s role as a transportation hub. There had been cuts in VIA jobs.
We felt the airport was greatly under-utilized. Highway 75 was in great shape (said tongue-in-cheek).”
The Chamber felt that Winnipeg was at the centre of the continent and had a role to play in international trade through the airport and trucking to Chicago.
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The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce and its History
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In 1960, the Board of Trade, by this time called The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, moved to 177 Lombard Ave., located in the heart of Western Canada’s financial and grain marketing district.
Built in 1911 on land purchased two years earlier by the Great-West Life Assurance Company for its new head office, the building was built at a cost of $400,000. Local architect John D. Atchison designed it in the Beaux-Arts style of classicism. Initially it was only four storeys, but another four floors were added in 1922. The Chamber occupied the seventh and eighth floors.
A fire in The Chamber Club in 1980 forced the clubrooms to temporarily relocate to what is today The Fairmont Winnipeg. By night, Chimes Restaurant was open for public dining, but at noon, it operated as The Chamber Club — Mayor Bill Nonie officially designating it as such.
The fire, which also caused smoke and water damage to the offices, forced The Chamber to once again look for new premises. In 1981, it moved across Rorie Street to 167 Lombard Ave., The Grain Exchange Building.
Built in 1906 to accommodate an expanding number of traders, The Exchange was a seven-storey building, in keeping with the Chicago School of Architecture’s designs for tall, steel- framed commercial buildings. Three major additions (in 1913, 1916 and 1922) extended the building to the north to McDermot Avenue and upward to 10 storeys. The Chamber occupied the fifth and sixth floors, with its offices on the fifth floor and the clubroom on the sixth.
Believing that downtown revitalization was a strategic priority The Chamber decided to show its commitment to “the heart of the business community” and in 2003, announced the creation of a new International Business Centre in which The Chamber, Manitoba Trade and Destination Winnipeg would co-locate in the Paris Building, 259 Portage Ave.
“The IBC will house the office of each organization, creating a central point of contact to engage local, national and international business in discussions on trade, investment and strategic alliances. Anticipated benefits of the IBC include increased public visibility and greater collaboration and co-ordination of strategic economic development and trade activities,” said a news release dated Feb. 26, 2003.
Totalling 43,729 square feet, the International Business Centre represented one of the largest office redevelopments and leases in modern downtown history. Roughly $4 million was invested in the character building, which for years had largely sat vacant.
Built in two stages (the first five storeys in 1915 and the upper six in 1917), the Paris Building was once described as Winnipeg’s “most elegantly clothed steel-frame skyscraper.”
The building, which initially cost $330 featured magnificent terra cotta ornamentation and striking architectural detail. The rental office and retail space was graced with grey marble wainscoting and stairs, elegant woodwork and glass partitions between airy, well-lit rooms.
Dingwall’s Jewellers and Shea’s Custom Tailors originally occupied the first two floors with the upper storeys devoted to a number of insurance companies and manufacturers’ agents. Today, Chamber offices occupy the ground floor, while on second floor The Chamber has its Conference Centre boardrooms, ‘business lounge and Xerox Business Solutions Centre, which provides computers and other office equipment for use by members on-the-go.
The Chamber is proud that it’s been able, in part, to ensure that Winnipeg’s most unique blend of the past and future is more than 90 per cent leased.
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