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Whistler Chamber of Commerce finalizes speakers for June symposium

Kevin Falcon, Minister of Finance and Deputy Premier of British Columbia will be keynote speaker on Monday, June 6

This summer's Outlook Economic Symposium is drawing a number of economic experts and industry leaders to speak at the Whistler Chamber of Commerce event.

Kevin Falcon, Minister of Finance and Deputy Premier of British Columbia is now confirmed as the keynote speaker on Monday, June 6.

Royal Bank of Canada director Jim Allworth has also been tapped to speak about the state of investments in Canada with a focus on monetary policy and the state of the global economy, particularly in the US and emerging economies.

"Canadians have an economy that is unusually dependent on, or connected to, other economies," he said, acknowledging that Whistler is a microcosm of this dependency. "Principally we are connected to the US, but certainly very much Asia as well and so we spend a lot of time measuring the health and the direction of those economies and whether that health and direction is playing towards us and away from us, so that's really the kind of thing I'm hoping to talk about."

The scope of this June's inaugural event includes economic, financial, demographic and consumer trends affecting Canada and the rest of the international community.

"There are a number of issues that will have a tremendous impact on B.C.'s economic future, so we wanted to attract the most qualified people to address them," said Fiona Famulak, president of the Whistler Chamber of Commerce.

"Our symposium will give attendees a rare opportunity to engage some of Canada's most sought after economic experts from both the private and public sectors."

Including Allworth, the symposium's line up will include a talk on today's global economic outlook by Sam Shaw, vice president of natural gas policy development at Encana Natural Gas Inc and Urban Futures Inc. director Andrew Ramlo, who will analyze future trends.

Janine North, CEO of Northern Development Initiative Trust, will moderate a sector panel discussion on tourism, natural resources, technology, the arts and real estate. The panel will include Mark Andrew, regional vice president of Pacific Northwest and general manager of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts; Tim McEwan, president and CEO of Initiatives Prince George Development Corporation; Dr. Pascal Spothelfer, president and CEO of BC Technology Industry Association; Peter Leitch, chairman of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of BC; and Lorne Burns, national industry leader of real estate at KPMG LLP.

A final discussion titled Focusing Forward: Forecasting B.C.'s Global Economic Future will be given by
Dr. Roger Gibbins, president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation.

For tickets contact the Whistler Chamber of Commerce at www.whistlerchamber.com or 604-932-5922.