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Home News Changes to Samuel McLeod Business Awards reflect business community’s diversity: Chamber CEO

Changes to Samuel McLeod Business Awards reflect business community’s diversity: Chamber CEO

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Changes to Samuel McLeod Business Awards reflect business community’s diversity: Chamber CEO
A presenter speaks during the Samuel McLeod Business Awards at Plaza 88 in April 2022. -- Photo by Jason Kerr/Daily Herald

The Samuel McLeod Business Awards will look a bit different when the next version rolls around in 2023.

The awards committee announced the addition of three new awards categories on Tuesday, along with plans to combine the Male and Female Business Leader of the Year awards into one.

Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce CEO Patty Hughes said they wanted the award to reflect the business community’s diversity, which is why they made the changes.

“(The committee) felt this was a good move on the Chamber’s part, to be taking a look at some of these specific areas and make sure that our business awards were reflective of what our business community is and what we needed to celebrate,” Hughes explained.

“We felt it was important. We have to make sure we’re very inclusive.”

Starting with the next awards show in 2023, the Chamber will hand out awards for Micro Enterprise of the Year, Diversity in the Workplace, and Indigenous Business of the Year.

Hughes said the Business of the Year award typically goes to a larger enterprise. They wanted to recognize business owners with smaller operations.

“We felt there were a lot of smaller enterprises out there that could not really compete in the award category, because you’re comparing one large organization versus a small one,” she explained. “We still need to celebrate those small enterprises, so we came up with the Micro Enterprise of the Year award because we all started somewhere.”

Hughes said they created the Indigenous Business of the Year awards after consulting with Indigenous leaders. She said Prince Albert has a significant Indigenous population, and the Samuel McLeod Business Awards needed to find a way to recognize their efforts.

The Diversity in Business Award reflects Prince Albert’s changing business community, Hughes explained. She said more businesses are hiring and recruiting diverse candidates, and the chamber wanted to recognize those efforts too.

“Overall, I think this is a really good move by the chamber,” she said. “It’s a really good move to be reflective of what our business community is.”

The changes mean the last awards ceremony in April was the final one with separate Male and Female Business Leader categories. Hughes said the distinction was necessary in the past, but that changed as female business leaders became more and more prominent.

Last year, the chamber received a significantly higher number of nominations for Female Business Leader compared to the Male Business Leader Award. Hughes said that’s one of several signs showing separate categories were no longer needed.

“There was a huge difference in the number of actual applications, so it’s really showing that our business community is really far more diverse than it was several years ago,” she explained.

The Samuel McLeod Business Awards are open to all private sector enterprises based in the Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce area. Applications will be available for the new award categories in December 2022.