The Edmundston Region Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the City of Edmundston, the Department of Postsecondary Education, Training and Labour along with Enterprise Madawaska, announced in January 2007 the official launch of the Welcoming Committee – an organisation that reflects the importance of a warm welcome for new people settling in our region.

The Committee’s aim is centered on every person or family returning or arriving to the region, from another city, province or country and settling down in Edmundston. For us, every newcomer is bearer of different horizons and experiences, all serving to enrich our community. The Committee hopes to make the City of Edmundston a symbol of openness and diversity, weaving relationships and building bridges between traditions and cultures, in addition to getting re-acquainted with our own.

The City of Edmundston and its inhabitants are well-known for their hospitality. It now becomes a matter of expressing it in a concrete fashion via this new and permanent Chamber committee. We feel that each citizen should be an ambassador to his City. It becomes his duty to sound off on its tourist attractions and cultural richeness, its exceptional quality of life, and more specifically, its enviable economic crossroads. Ideally located near the Atlantic provinces, the province of Quebec and the State of Maine, Edmundston must position itself as the strategic gateway to both the economic and cultural worlds !

The Welcoming Committee’s first mandate is to facilitate the newcomers’ adaptation via a Hospitality Kit with information on Edmundston as well as other relevant services that a person/family should know when changing region. In addition, the Committee hopes to make available to all new residents the assistance required to make sure they can actively participate and contribute to the local cultural and social life. This approach, it is hoped, will encourage a sentiment of belonging to their new community.

Every new resident in an unfamiliar region is usually overwhelmed by changes and is thus hesitant to make the first move. Furthermore, it can be difficult to communicate with the people who could offer the necessary support, not to mention finding the right persons. Our Committee wants to break down this wall, this obstacle which can give the impression of inaccessibilty and coldness. Such is the fondamental mission of the Welcoming Committee.

In order to function properly, the Welcoming Committee relies on a network of devoted and unpaid volunteers who have an open perspective and who have Edmundston’s propserity at heart. In fact, the Chamber of Commerce still accepts volunteers. You are welcome to join our team.