The Squamish Chamber of Commerce is inviting business owners and others to provide input for a report that its creators hope will serve as an inclusive and effective economic development tool for the community.
While a questionnaire prepared by the Chamber's Economic Development Committee contains some questions geared specifically to local business owners, anyone with an interest in the topic is invited to fill it out, John Jervis, the committee's chair, said on Tuesday (May 10).
"We want to hear from everyone," Jervis said. "We feel that if we're all-inclusive, then everyone buys into the strategies that we come up with, and everyone can come together to make the economy happen."
The questionnaire aims to help the committee fulfill its mission to "promote effective economic development initiatives for the Squamish community by providing advice to local authorities and stakeholders" and following up with action plans and ongoing monitoring, according to a report from the committee's April 12 meeting.
Jervis said while the committee itself is currently comprised of Jervis, Chamber president Maurice Freitag, Chamber director Ron Anderson and Squamish CAN representative Eric Andersen, the aim is to include other members from other sectors such as the arts and political spheres.
The committee is keen to work with the District of Squamish's new economic development co-ordinator when officials hire someone to fill that new post, Jervis said.
He said some of the questions on the survey deal with hurdles people might have had in starting up new businesses in Squamish in the past and how those can be overcome.
"One question is what we've been doing the wrong way over the past few years. It's not our intention to be critical of the District, but I think it helps if you can identify challenges and problems you've had in setting up your business," Jervis said.
Since the survey was launched a couple of weeks ago, "we've had 50 to 60 responses already, and there's some really interesting insights," he said. "There's some very thoughtful people who want to weigh in and have their thoughts considered."
While he said he thinks it's appropriate for a group like the Chamber spearhead such an initiative "We have businesses who do compete with each other, so we have to be unbiased in the way we operate," he said Jervis said the initiative is definitely not just for businesses. The District has a key role to play as well, he said.
He said an economic development model in Maple Ridge is something he would like to emulate in Squamish.
"They have an all-inclusive group that's built to be a long-term entity that watches over whether the initiatives they've identified are working and whether those deliverables are coming in," Jervis said. "I really like that and hope that we can do something similar."
In Squamish, "There are so many business and community leaders that are really feeling left out over the last three years through what's going on in making decisions. We want to be engaged and we want to help, but it's been quite a closed little group that's formed over there [at town hall]."
Jervis encouraged those with an interest in the topic to fill out the questionnaire, which is available at www.surveymonkey.com/s/chamberEDquestionnaire, before the first week of June.
