MINTO – Over the summer, town staff met with 82 businesses in Clifford, Harriston and Palmerston as part of its business retention and expansion (BRE) project, in partnership with the Minto Chamber of Commerce.
The project stems from a new town initiative, Minto Means Business, which held a BRE Breakfast on Nov. 27 to present the survey findings.
Staff also outlined actions the initiative will be undertaking over the next few years.
“We did what’s called a cross-sector [BRE] survey,” director of economic and community development Belinda Wick-Graham told the crowd.
“We wanted to talk to people across all sectors.”
To be “statistically sound” the committee needed 75 business surveys completed, she said.
Roughly 17 sectors were accounted for in the survey, including:
– agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (11.1 per cent);
– health care and social assistance (11.1%);
– accommodation and food services (8.6%);
– retail trade – motor vehicle and furniture (8.6%); and
– retail trade – sporting goods, books, music, etc. (8.6%).
About 42% of survey businesses are located in Palmerston, 46% in Harriston and 12% in Clifford.
In terms of overall impression of the community, 84% of business owners rated Minto as a good or excellent place to do business.
“Ten per cent did note a negative change … and the change in attitude was related to competition online, development costs and lack of local support,” Wick-Graham explained.
Many businesses (45%) are planning expansions in the future with 34% remaining the same. Two per cent plan to close their doors.
“Only 56% of our businesses reported good to excellent for being able to retain new employees,” Wick-Graham said.
She noted the reported workforce attraction and retention numbers are “not the greatest,” with the ability to attract new employees sitting at 33% and availability of qualified workers even lower at 25%
Certain hiring challenges are due to lack of applicants, lack of skills and lack of motivation.
Key changes business owners want to see in the next five years include:
– increasing attainable and affordable housing;
– better transportation options, including transit to larger centres and improved rural roads;
– reduced red rape, taxes and start-up costs to make expansion or opening a business easier; and
– continued municipal support of small- and medium-sized businesses.
“Number one is no surprise: workforce and resident attraction training,” Wick-Graham said. “People said they need workers and need more people living here to shop and work here.”
Housing landed the number two priority spot.
“In the last two months we have approved three new subdivisions in Minto. That’s more than we’ve done in years,” said Wick-Graham.
The next priority is to continue downtown revitalization and developing Minto as a destination.
“Priority four is supporting entrepreneurship … we already have identified a lot of these [priorities],” Wick-Graham said.
Priorities five and six are in regards to investment readiness, land development and encouraging business expansion.
“We are running out of our own land, we’re running out of serviced land,” she said. “But we do have other private owners who do have industrial commercial land.”
Wick-Graham noted town staff is working with private owners to get those lands ready for market.
To view the full report visit town.minto.on.ca.
