Image Credit: BIA BC

By Victor Kaisar

New BIABC President

Jeremy Heighton named new BIABC President

Dec 1, 2024 | 7:57 AM

KAMLOOPS — Longtime Kamloops business advocate Jeremy Heighton has been named the newest president of the Business Improvement Areas Association of BC (BIABC).

Heighton, who has been on the BIABC board for the past three years – most recently as Vice President – takes over from Jeff Bray, who resigned after a year as president.

“I was asked by the BIABC board to step in a little ahead of time. Normally, I would be taking this on in March,” Heighton said, calling the new role the “pinnacle” of his career.

“It was ratified at the board meeting this week and so I’m happy to step in to the role and work on behalf of BIAs across BC and into Alberta.”

Heighton has been Executive Director of the North Shore Business Improvement Association (NSBIA) in Kamloops since 2018 and will continue on in that role.

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“I accept this new role with a deep sense of gratitude and humility, knowing that I have been blessed to both serve my local community, and be given the opportunity to serve our business community across the Province,” he said.

Heighton says BIABC – which is comprised of 70 members that represent more than 55,000 businesses in the province – will be urging the BC NDP government to follow through on their campaign promises especially around public safety, crime, vandalism, and the cost of doing business.

He told CFJC Today that the organization has written a letter to Premier David Eby asking for a meeting to discuss those issues as soon as possible.

“One of the areas we’re looking at is targeted investment to improve our community safety framework in the province of B.C., not just on the policing side but also on the complex care side,” Heighton said.

“There needs to be a more concrete framework from the provincial government, both policy wise, procedure wise, and legislatively, as well as resources to municipalities.”

Formed in 1991, BIABC describes itself as the “provincial champion of strong, vibrant and successful downtowns, main streets and commercial districts throughout our province.”

“BIAs do a lot of advocacy work but we also do a lot of marketing and events that benefit the community as a whole, including economic development,” Heighton said. “My goal is to ensure that BIAs whether they’re in the Kootenays or in downtown Vancouver all see value in the organization moving forward.”

“We want to work with municipalities, and we want to work with government to find solutions to some of the complexities that are really facing businesses in British Columbia at this time.”

As he’ll be splitting his time between the two roles, Heighton said the NSBIA will be hiring an administrative assistant to help out with things like scheduling.

“We also have a very strong project team,” Heighton said. “I think everybody in town knows Patti Phillips who will still be here. Ron Newman who is running the Clean Team will still be here, and I have lots of support from the KCBIA and our board.”

“I don’t have a lot of concern about the split of attention in fact what it may do is give us a higher level of exposure and a higher level of opportunity to drive community change here into Kamloops,” Heighton added, when asked if he’ll be able to focus on both of his roles.

“We’ll be meeting with Council’s Economic Health Select Committee in December, and we’re going to work with the city to try and find ways to advocate for the services we require in Kamloops.”