(EverythingGP file photo)

By Abby Zieverink

Business Retention and Expansion

County hoping to further improve business retention

Oct 3, 2021 | 7:00 AM

Results from the 2021 County of Grande Prairie Triage Business Retention and Expansion Report suggest county business owners overall are more satisfied compared to most other municipalities.

The County has been conducting the annual business visitation project since 2018.

Reeve Leanne Beaupre suggests council was very exciting to hear this as the report was presented at the September 27 council meeting.

“Their comments were that we ranked higher than a lot of other municipalities within all three years,” said Beaupre.

“So, that really gives the County of Grande Prairie the confidence that we’re doing things right.”

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The results from the survey showed an 87 per cent satisfaction rate for 2021, which represents data taken from 151 randomly selected businesses in the County.

The survey included a variety of questions to help gauge where gaps exist for businesses in the county. Beaupre suggests these gaps include services, programs and accessibility for county ratepayers and businesses.

“Whether its skilled labour, unskilled labour, or what the challenges are for our businesses.”

She says removing the gaps will help continually strengthen the business community, suggesting that the reason for these surveys is to allow council to find areas where business owners are seeking improvements.

The top three priority issues suggested by the consultant included the availability of skilled labour, the availability of broadband internet service to support future business needs, and the availability of internet service to support current business needs.

When looking at broadband internet service, Beaupre says one of the biggest issues the county is facing is understanding what ratepayers and businesses already have, and what is available to make the internet service better.

“One of the initiatives on our strategic plan was to make sure that we had broadband access to everyone in the County of Grande Prairie; to our residents, to our businesses, so that’s something we have been working on for a while.”

Beaupre explains that overall, council is pleased with the results of the survey.

Although, the top three areas noted are something council is hoping to work with businesses on.

“We certainly wouldn’t be doing it on our own, but we would certainly be participating in something to help develop a more adequate workforce for the area,” said Beaupre.

“We can help and partner with the chamber of commerce or GPRC or other educational institutions on how we can actually grow that workforce or educate that workforce.”