A new report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) shows Chatham-Kent has some work to do when it comes to being more business-friendly.
According to the CFIB's latest research, which evaluated Canada's most populous communities, the municipality ranked 119 out of 125 in 2018 when it comes to entrepreneurship.
The vice president and chief economist at the CFIB, Ted Mallett, said it's part of a larger trend in southwestern Ontario, which saw a number of urban areas drop in their rankings. He said a big factor is a recent hit to the manufacturing sector.
"This isn't limited to Chatham-Kent," said Mallett. "The cycling out of the manufacturing base has hit a lot of economies hard and therefore optimism tends to be a little lower."
The 13 indicators that the communities were ranked on include earnings levels, optimism, growth plans, and local tax policy.
The latest ranking of 119 is also a noticeable drop from the CFIB's last report in 2016, which placed Chatham-Kent at 62 out of 121 communities. The biggest difference between the two rankings was in the "perspective" category -- the report says that "covers indicators associated with optimism and growth plans," also referring to the top communities in that category as places "where business owners are most upbeat."
Mallett said Chatham-Kent can turn things around by improving the "mood" among business owners and potential entrepreneurs.
"If there's a feeling that there are too many roadblocks in the way, whether it's labour legislation or sign regulations or health and safety... then the business won't do that kind of investment and that has a long-term dampening effect on optimism levels," said Mallett. "There are a lot of small things that need to be done -- it's trying to make sure that the mood is as positive as possible."
Another area Chatham-Kent could look at, according to Mallett, is the tax environment. He said the commercial property tax rate in Chatham-Kent in 2018 was about 1.76-times the residential property tax rate.
"That's actually pretty good compared to other cities nearby," said Mallett, referring to Windsor and London where the commercial tax rate is close to twice as much as the residential rate. "But [Chatham-Kent] has got to focus on that some more, perhaps they can start checking that gap further."
Blackburn News reached out to Chatham-Kent's Director of Economic Development Stuart McFadden for comment on the municipality's ranking, but he was not available at the time of publication.
It should be noted that the municipality has recently undertaken a number of initiatives to make the community more business-friendly, including gathering feedback on how to improve processes for business development and drafting a Development Standards Manual.
-With files from Greg Higgins
