Weyburn accountant Ted Hillstead was elected as president of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce during their annual meeting held in Lloydminster on Wednesday.

He will be dealing with a number of business issues in his one-year term, including helping to set up and organize the chamber's Action Saskatchewan initiative gathering in October.

Some of the issues he will help guide the provincial chamber on include property tax reform, where the chamber would like to see mill factors for different businesses brought closer to the mill factor of 1.

"Residential rates are the discounted rates, because businesses can deduct their property taxes. Assessment already has that built into it, so we're just saying if we're going to use one system, it should be applied more consistently," said Hillstead.

The chamber also would like to do a review of Crown corporations, and would like to see foreign land ownership opened up further. There is also an effort from industry to have more environmental regulations brought in where they are currently lacking.

The Action Saskatchewan initiative is a follow-up to a summit the province had held in January, and will take information from that, from ACRE, from accounting organizations and non-profit organizations, and pool stats and figures from what is happening in other provinces and in nine states with a similar economic make-up as Saskatchewan, "to see what the province should be focussing on in the next number of years."

At the October gathering, they will pool all of these resources to develop a common vision for Saskatchewan for the next 100 years, said Hillstead.

Asked how he feels about having leadership of the top provincial business organization, Hillstead replied, "What's really enjoyable is there are so many businesses involved in the chamber. Some of the people I work with there are some of the best people who are out there, and it's exciting to work on policies and have people who are experts in all these different areas."

Hillstead also noted he's had the support of the Weyburn Chamber since they helped elect him to represent the zone six years ago. He noted this year Don Kraft of Weyburn was elected to represent the Weyburn-Estevan zone for the Saskatchewan Chamber, and he will sit on the executive council. The new board of the Chamber will hold one of their five board meetings in Weyburn on June 8 at a location yet to be determined.

Hillstead was born and educated in Weyburn, and articled with a chartered accountant firm in Weyburn before going to work at IPSCO as a senior financial accountant. He served as the Dean of Operations at Southeast Regional College from 1990 to 1997, and he and his partners formed an accounting practice in 1994.

He has been involved in a number of professional associations as well as in the community, serving two terms as president of the Weyburn Chamber of Commerce. He also chaired the Southeast Regional Economic Development Authority and the Sunrise Community Futures Development committees, and was recently named as one of Saskatchewan's Men of Influence by Saskatchewan Business Magazine.

Professionally, he has been on the board of governors for the Certified General Accounting Association, and is past chairman of the Regina chapter of the CGA. He recently received his entrance as a Fellow into the CGA.