windsor essex chamber of commerce celebrates 150 years in 'extremely challenging' times
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windsor essex chamber of commerce and city of windsor dignitaries pose for a photo during a rainy press conference on thursday, july 31, 2025 at the jackson park.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
in announcing plans to celebrate its 150th anniversary, the windsor essex chamber of commerce acknowledged it has rarely faced more challenging times.
“i think where we’re at right now and the uncertainty, yes, i think it’s going to be extremely challenging, and it has been challenging for the past few months,” chamber president and ceo ryan donally said thursday.
the year-long party will be highlighted by a series of events, including a gala on march 27, 2026, at the water’s edge event centre to celebrate the actual founding of the organization.
“i do think this is an opportunity for the chamber of commerce and our regional economic development ecosystem partners to all come together and support each other,” donally said at a press event announcing the anniversary plans.
“this is definitely a time you need the entire community to support each other. i think the chamber will play an integral role in doing that.”
part of that support will be acknowledging over the coming months the local business community’s success and resiliency.
that starts this month with the chamber celebrating its 150 longest-serving members.
“we have 150 businesses that have been with us for over two decades now,” donally said. “we’ll do some social media promoting them, celebrating their business.”
“next may’s business excellence awards, we’ll also do a retrospective on previous winners and how they’ve shaped our economy and region.
“there will also be other events sprinkled through the calendar celebrating small business and for networking in a social setting.”
ryan donally, centre, president and ceo of the windsor-essex regional chamber of commerce, speaks during a press conference on thursday, july 31, 2025, at jackson park as windsor mayor drew dilkens, left, and tal czudner, chair of the local chamber’s board of directors, look on.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
however, donally said the chamber will also have to do some heavy lifting over the coming months amongst the celebrations to help the business community navigate tariff turbulence.
“it’s not all sunshine, butterflies and rainbows,” donally said. “there are layoffs happening in many different sectors, most notably the manufacturing sector.
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“there’s been a push to shop canadian and that degree of patriotism that has allowed our main street (retailers) to continue to be successful.”
moving forward, donally said the chamber will serve as the glue that binds together the many segments that form the local economy.
“where the chamber of commerce lies is going to be the nexus between government, business, economic development, not-for-profit and the academic sectors,” donally said.
“it connects those dots and makes sure business and the government are connecting, business and academic institutions are connecting, and all those are coming together to do the best possible regional economic development system here.”
though he supports canadian efforts to diversify the country’s trading partners, donally said the windsor region has to deal with the reality of its geographic location.
“we have deep integration from an economic side of things, but we also have social, political and familial relations we can’t forget about,” donally said. “we can’t sell our house, we’re going to be neighbours forever.
“having that strong relationship with your neighbour, even though we’re going through a little bit of a spat right now, is extremely important. i know the chamber of commerce has strengthened the relationship recently.”
donally said the local chamber meets regularly and has strengthened ties with key cross-border partners in the downtown detroit partnership, the detroit regional partnership and the detroit regional chamber of commerce.
downtown detroit partnership ceo eric larson previously told the star there are 7,000 detroit businesses directly dependent on trade with canada,
“we’re in this together,” donally said. “there are issues happening on both sides of the border.
“look at the big 3 (automakers), we’ve recently seen multibillion-dollar losses across the board, there’s layoffs happening in the states. if we pull ourselves from the national lens and look at the geographic lens, we have an economy here that relies on each other.”
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