The Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce and the local Vernon office of MNP, a national accounting and business consulting firm, are launching a survey of the Vernon and area business leaders for their views on the local business climate and economic outlook.
Modelled after similar surveys conducted by MNP in other communities across Canada, the MNP Greater Vernon Area Business Leaders Survey will provide a local economic snapshot on a range of topics including business climate, hiring intentions, growth expectations, key challenges and other local issues.
“We expect the survey will uncover some very useful insights and benchmark data,” said Blair Gronlund, partner and business advisor with MNP Vernon. “This type of localized economic data is not readily available and will be extremely valuable to business and government leaders, as well as organizations that support local businesses like the chamber and MNP.”
Dione Chambers, Greater Vernon Chamber general manager, expressed the importance of having access to local, relevant and timely data to provide insights into trends and key indicators that enable the Vernon and area marketplace to measure how our business community is changing.
“This allows us to further understand and apply what that means to growth and investment opportunities for local business owners and suppliers, and to represent the voice of local business and advocate on their behalf,” said Chambers. “One of our goals is to create a meaningful conversation about what can be done to continue to grow our local and regional economy. That starts with listening to the needs of the business leaders in our community.”
The telephone survey will be conductedby a third-party market research firm, PRA Inc., with a random sample of local business leaders and will not be limited to chamber members. All respondents will remain anonymous. It is scheduled to launch the first week in March and is expected to take about four weeks to reach the target of 200 respondents.
Results of the survey will be publicly released at an Economic Outlook Breakfast hosted by the chamber on April 26. Tickets can be purchased from the chamber website at www.vernonchamber.ca.