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Survey launched to gauge Comox Valley business climate

The survey is a short pulse survey conducted by phone with a sample of 200 local business leaders.
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Four local organizations are asking local business owners and senior executives to share their views on the current state of business in the Comox Valley.

The Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce, Comox Valley Economic Development Society (CVEDS), Cumberland Economic Development and MNP LLP have partnered to launch the third edition of a survey to assess the local business climate and economic outlook in the Comox Valley.

Modelled after similar surveys conducted by MNP in other communities across Canada, the MNP Business Leaders Survey is a short pulse survey conducted by telephone with a sample of 200 local business leaders. The goal is to provide an economic snapshot on a range of topics including business climate, hiring intentions, growth expectations, key challenges and other local issues.

“We released the results of our first Comox Valley survey in January 2016 and our second survey in January 2018,” explained Karen Guinan, a private enterprise partner with MNP in Courtenay. “Now that we are starting to build up some historical results, it will be interesting to see what’s changed and if any trends are emerging.”

“One of our goals is to create a meaningful conversation about what can be done to continue to grow our local and regional economy – and that starts with listening to the needs of the business leaders in our community,” added Dianne Hawkins, chamber CEO.

“This type of localized economic data is extremely valuable to both business and government leaders and provides firm direction to organizations like all of the partners involved about how we can better support local businesses.”

CVEDS has undertaken annual business surveys before and the results were critical in further defining and understanding business and economic issues, obstacles and opportunities in the regional economy. Additionally, the information provides key insights to guide CVEDS program development, including the Business Counts Workshops series, and the creation of resources and tools to support existing & new businesses and industry sectors.

“The Village of Cumberland is excited to join our regional partners through this engagement to better understand both the challenges and opportunities currently facing local business,” added Kaelin Chambers, Cumberland economic development officer.

“With the insights provided through the MNP Business Leaders Survey, we will be collectively positioned to better support Comox Valley businesses, at both a local and regional level.”

The anonymous telephone survey will be conducted by a third-party market research firm, PRA Inc., beginning this week and is expected to take about four weeks to complete.

The results of the survey will be released at an economic outlook breakfast hosted by the Chamber on Jan. 16, 2020. Tickets for the event can be purchased on the Chamber website at www.comoxvalleychamber.com