The District of Sparwood, with support from Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) and the Columbia Basin Rural Development Institute (RDI), is pleased to announce the publication of the results from 2015’s Business Retention & Expansion (BRE) survey.

The BRE is an action-oriented and community-based approach to business and economic development. It promotes job growth by helping communities to learn about the concerns of, as well as opportunities for, local businesses and to set priorities for projects to address those needs. Ultimately, communities have greater success in attracting new businesses if existing businesses are content with local economic conditions and community support.

Highlights from the recent report include:

– The overall business climate was rated as good, and the majority of businesses believe that the business climate will improve over the next five years;

– Business climate factors that received the highest ratings include local government and the workforce quality;

– 22% of businesses surveyed reported annual sales between $1 million and $4.99 million;

– Businesses most commonly listed Sparwood’s proximity to Alberta and the United States, as well as its proximity to mines as its greatest strength as a place to do business;

– The overall health of their company was rated as excellent by 45% of businesses, and good by 32% of businesses.

The District of Sparwood, working in partnership with the RDI at Selkirk College, initiated the BRE project in late 2014 as a year-long project acting as a key foundation to economic development planning. The results of the survey have informed council’s strategic planning process and have been integrated into the priorities for the current council term. 
The full survey is available for download from HERE.

Jude Smith, 
Business Development Liaison

District of Sparwood

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