Business Retention and Expansion Final Report - City of Brantford

91ConclusionThe purpose of the Business Retention + Expansion project was to engage the community in order to identify challengesand opportunities for the advancement of positive community-based economic development. Tourism Brantford andDowntown Brantford Business Improvement Area has made a significant first data collection from 330 businesses andorganizations in the Brantford, County of Brant, Six Nations and New Credit area.The implementation of the standardized BR+E survey instrument that included 165 questions for the area’s tourismsector and 176 questions for the downtown district of Brantford stakeholders has resulted in a comprehensive poolingof information that will allow the community to move forward with several strategic actions that were formulated as anoutcome of the surveying process. The support of many volunteers and the active participation of the businesses andorganizations that were involved in the one-on-one interviews are all to be congratulated.Respondents in both the tourism sector and the downtown district of Brantford rated the business climate for the areaas good to excellent. Overall 212 of the firms in the tourism sector stated that they would remain the same or expand.The downtown district indicated that 57 businesses would either remain the same or expand. 63% of the firmsinterviewed in both the tourism sector and the downtown district stated that they had been in business for more than10 years. In total the tourism sector reported a total of 3,396 employees and the downtown district reported 2,235employees in the survey data collected.Sales volume projection is one of the indicators of a healthy economic future and for the tourism sector 73% of thosesurveyed are anticipating an increase and in the downtown district 70% are predicting increased sales. Factors that willensure that the firms in both sectors remain competitive are the same – market development and improved customerservice are ranked the top two factors.With an increase in sales and the likelihood for growth and development the ability to retain and attract skilled andunskilled labour is an issue for most communities across many sectors in Ontario and the Brantford area is no different.Over the past three years in the tourism sector and the downtown district 41% of the companies interviewed statedthat their employee base had increased. Looking ahead 93% of the firms in the tourism sector believe that they willeither increase or maintain their current workforce with on average an increase of four employees or 336 jobs overall.The downtown district respondents stated that there is a projected 479 jobs that will be created over the next threeyear.The local community indicators revealed similar responses from both the tourism sector and the downtown district.Quality of Life ranked excellent to good by 87% of the respondents for the tourism sector and in the downtown 79%of those surveyed. 82% of the tourism survey participants stated that they had adequate access to markets/customers/suppliers, while 83% indicated this factor from the downtown core. 73% of the tourism sector indicated that they hadsupport from the local business community while the downtown data illustrated a higher rate of 79%.In contrast within the tourism sector the County of Brant, Six Nations and New Credit communities it is important tonote that overall the lack of water/sewer capacity and telecommunications infrastructure has been identified as a