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CE0'S REFLECTION

Celebrating a century of community

building

denied, abruptly ending the project which, We have always insisted the community’s
as memory serves me, was later revived in problems become our problems to solve,
Hespeler. However, if you head out for a and that we connect the community to
walk along Linear Park Trail today, you can those who can develop, provide, and
still see the ditch, now overgrown, but still inspire solutions that champion economic
there. growth.
During the pandemic, even the Federal
In this incredible publication by the Government couldn’t figure out how

Chamber spanning our collective to distribute COVID test kits to small
history, you will find some fascinating businesses, that is until they mentioned

information on the building of their troubles to me. On a cold Saturday in
this community and the integral March of 2021, I suggested to the Assistant
part business played in that. The Deputy Minister on the phone that the
One hundred years (plus) of Chamber’s history is your history and Chamber of Commerce could get them
economic history in our community the busines community’s history tells out faster than anyone, and we would be
is truly something that needs to the story of how we became who we happy to help.
be unpacked and we have been are today. Within a couple of weeks, we had
working hard to capture some of thousands of rapid screening kits piled

those highlights over those years up at our Hespeler Road office and within
for this special Insight edition, even Innovation, determination, dedication, a month, every Chamber of Commerce in
stretching back to the 1800s. and a love for our community have always Canada was distributing the kits to small
Cambridge (Galt, Preston, Hespeler, and been the driving force behind our Chamber and medium-sized businesses from coast
of Commerce. When we look around our
to coast. Locally, we distributed about
Blair) has always had a strong beat in community, we see evidence of our impact 1.5 million kits, and collectively Canadian
its heart for industry. It’s not surprising on the world. For instance, IMAX creator Chambers of Commerce distributed more
since being located at the convergence Graeme Ferguson was a Galt Collegiate than 15 million. These kits not only assisted
of the Speed and Grand rivers where the Institute grad, and one of his partners businesses to stay open despite a tight
water moves at a pace fast enough to turn Robert Kerr, former owner of Kerr-Progress regulatory environment but helped keep
mills that we quickly became a prized Printing Company was mayor of Galt, and workplaces safe and employees feeling
location to build business and community later Cambridge. Also, Cambridge-based safe at work, which in turn saved lives.
in the early days of industrialization of Heroux-Devtek Manufacturing built the
this country. I am sure that has been landing gear for the Apollo Lunar Module The Chamber is the place to turn when
our collective “secret sauce” over the that landed on the moon. As well, COM problems require solutions, where things
years. Our predecessors were innovators, DEV (now Honeywell) developed a spinoff need to get done, and where momentum
dreamers, and action oriented. company called exactEarth Ltd. (now Spire) must be forward moving. That is what
I can recall when I served on Cambridge that monitors all the shipping traffic in we do day in and day out, and that is

what we’ve done for the past century on
City Council in the 1990s, walking along the world via low earth orbiting satellites your behalf, always keeping you in mind
the Grand River on the Linear Park Trail which were built right here in Cambridge. and community in our heart. We are just
with a senior staff member from the City That same company is also responsible celebrating now the impact we’ve had

discussing a ditch that ran adjacent to the for developing the key equipment on the in the past 100 years, which serves as a
river and the trail because it seemed an James Webb Telescope which now allows reminder that we have lots of work to do.
odd anomaly for nature to have left behind. us to see back in time to “first light”. The next 100 years begins right now!

I discovered nature wasn’t involved at all. These are just a few of countless others
In fact, during the early days of community who are changing our world for the better,
building an early settler had come to every single day. Greg Durocher
Preston to find a place to build his The Chamber solidified its purpose for President & CEO

mill operation. The Linear Park area, existing through the pandemic, amplifying Cambridge Chamber of Commerce
undeveloped, looked like the right spot to its dutiful responsibility for ensuring the
do that so he started to dig the waterway voices of business are always heard and
for the mill. Just as he was ready to open that economic vitality remains our No. 1
the ditch to the incoming water that priority.
would power the mill, his river access was

www.cambridgechamber.com Spring 2024 3