Survey Launched to Gauge Comox Valley Business Climate

Three local organizations are asking local business owners and senior managers to share their views on what it’s like to do business in the Comox Valley.

The Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Comox Valley Economic Development Society (CVEDS) and MNP LLP, a local accounting and business consulting firm, have partnered to launch the second 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.

“This will be the second time we’ve conducted the survey in the Comox Valley,” explained Wendy Lewis, a partner and business advisor with MNP in Courtenay. “We released the results of our first survey in January 2015, so now we’ve got the benefit of having that initial benchmark data for comparison. It’s going to be very interesting to see what’s changed in the past two years.”

“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 the Chamber, CVEDS and MNP 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 anonymous telephone survey will be conducted by a third-party market research firm, PRA Inc., and is expected to take about four weeks to complete. Results of the survey will be released at an economic outlook breakfast hosted by the Chamber on January 19, 2017. Tickets for the event can be purchased on the Chamber website at www.comoxvalleychamber.com.

For more information, contact:

Dianne Hawkins, CEO
Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce
250.334.3234 or dhawkins@comoxvalleychamber.com

Lara Greasley, Marketing & Communications Manager
Comox Valley Economic Development Society
250.334.2427 Ext 223 or lgreasley@investcomoxvalley.com

Wendy Lewis, Partner and Business Advisor
MNP LLP in Courtenay
250.338.5464 or wendy.lewis@mnp.ca

Source: http://www.mnp.ca/en/posts/survey-launched-to-gauge-comox-valley-business-climate