Surrey Board of Trade

A History of the Surrey Board of Trade

The Surrey Board of Trade (Chamber of Commerce), as a business organization, has been serving the community of Surrey since 1918.

In 1964, three of the five local Chambers of Commerce in Surrey amalgamated to form the Surrey Regional Chamber of Commerce. However, the Cloverdale and the White Rock/South Surrey Chambers chose not to amalgamate.

The Surrey Regional Chamber of Commerce was incorporated under the federal Board of Trade Act of Industry Canada. The Chamber Offices were housed at the Guildford Library building from 1969 until 1998.

In 1996 the name Surrey Regional Chamber of Commerce was changed to Surrey Chamber of Commerce.

The primary function of the Chamber has been networking for its business members and providing a strong local business voice at the various levels of government.

With the help of saved funds, a location was agreed upon and the Surrey Chamber of Commerce building was built in 1997. In December 1998, the offices were moved to the new location at 14439 104th Avenue.

In 2006, the membership voted to change the name of the organization to The Surrey Board of Trade to better represent the work done by the organization for their member businesses.

The Board is run under the able direction of a twenty member Board of Directors, which includes the honourary appointment of the Mayor of Surrey.

The day to day operations are managed by a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and nine staff.

The membership of the Board stands currently at 1,260 which ranks the Surrey Board of Trade as one of the three largest in BC. There are approximately 129 Chambers of Commerce in the province. The average Chamber membership is under 500.