MELFORT — The Melfort Chamber of Commerce is considering selling off its office building after finding out it owes around $36,000 in payroll deductions.
At a public meeting May 4, the five remaining board members of the chamber said there’s also $4,000 in other expenses. The chamber’s main account was frozen in October, while a secondary account has $5,400.
“We’re still working through some financial discrepancies, which we haven’t gotten to the bottom of yet,” said Darryl Benson, one of the directors.
These issues were revealed after the former executive director, Nicole Gagne, resigned Feb. 2.
Mel Annand, a local lawyer, spoke about dealing with the legal situation that comes with owing the Canada Revenue Agency for payroll deductions. He’s been working with the government to negotiate a way to pay them back.
The unremitted deductions date back to 2016 and 2017. Annand said there’s something that people who were directors on the chamber’s board during that time should know.
“The Canada Revenue Agency and the Government of Canada has made it the law that directors of those corporations have personal liability for unremitted employee deductions,” he said. Employers are not allowed to keep tax and EI and CPP money from an employee and not remit it to CRA.”
Annand added that people who are directors of any volunteer organization or non-profit should ensure they know how money is spent to avoid such a situation.
The goal of the public meeting was to try to find a way to move forward. Steve McLellan, the CEO of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, mediated the meeting. He’s been advising the Melfort chamber since March.
“I’m quite pleased that the community showed up with the numbers that they did and the level of commitment,” he said. “That’s what we hoped would happen – and it did – so I think there’s great things ahead for the Melfort Chamber of Commerce.”
He suggested the chamber look at selling its office, especially now the City of Melfort isn’t paying them $30,000 to manage the city’s tourism promotion, and dispose of the mini-golf course. There were no objections to that idea at the meeting, but a final decision is yet to be made.
McLellan said at the meeting the chamber will need business-savvy people that are willing to spend the time to get to the bottom of its fiscal situation and get back on track.
“I would encourage anybody that didn’t get to the meeting today that believes the future of this community is strong, that the business community needs to band together to help make it even strong, connect with the chamber executive, send a note to the chamber and get on board.”
McLellan also told the audience that renewing their memberships will help the chamber move past this tough period and into a situation where they are stronger.
