The North West Enterprise Region officially launched their Business Retention and Expansion program this week as a way to gain more understanding about the current business climate in the region.
The plans are for the program to gather data about the business climate by interviewing businesses in the area, and help identify expansion or retention trends and the factors surrounding them.
The information is necessary to develop and enhance the regional economy, enterprise region officials say. If businesses are closing down the reasons need to be identified so economic developers can work with regional stakeholders and different levels of government to address the issue. On the other hand, if businesses are thriving the enterprise region wants to know what is being done right and what improvements can be made so the economic climate could become even more favorable.
Economic Development Officer Kristopher Schmaltz has been working closely on the project and describes it as "collecting data that can be used to assess the business climate in the enterprise region."
The region is undertaking the project on their own, but Enterprise Saskatchewan has provided the North West region with software used throughout North America to gauge business retention and expansion.
The survey includes two types: one for primary industry that operates on a global scale, and another one for what Schmaltz describes as "CRTS" - convention, retail, tourism and services. Both types of surveys are being done in this region.
"There are by far and away more CRTS than there are prime" in this region, Schmaltz said. The software allows you to distinguish between the two, he said.
The surveys can be filled out, and the software allows the information to be plugged back in easily to produce a report, allowing the enterprise region to complete a comparative analysis of trends within both the region, Saskatchewan and North America.
The survey delves into what types of services the business offers, to whether they assess the workforce as good, whether real estate is taken care of, whether it is a good place to do business and whether the tax laws are in good shape.
As a result, the North West region will be able to deliver more effective economic development services and will be able to provide Enterprise Saskatchewan with important information as well.
"The purpose is for us to gain a good understanding of the business climate here," Schmaltz said.
The North West region says a majority of the other enterprise regions are conducting business retention and expansion programs of their own, and this gives the organization a chance to be part of a province-wide effort to gather the information needed to gauge the business climate.
Schmaltz said as a result we would get an idea how the regions stand next to others and what competitive advantages are offered.
Businesses in the region will be randomly chosen or invited to participate. Two individuals will be conducting interviews. All the information about individual businesses protected through privacy provisions will remain confidential. Those totals are then submitted to Enterprise Saskatchewan at the end of the project.
Once the surveys are done, in early 2011 the North West Enterprise Region plans to provide a full report to Enterprise Saskatchewan, and then Enterprise Saskatchewan can assess the information and identify where policy changes may be necessary to improve the business climate.
