The City of Greater Sudbury leads the pack of the five major Northern Ontario cities in the Canadian Federation of Independent Business' (CFIB) annual survey of Best Cities to do Business.
Their report, Communities in Boom, placed Western Canadian cities in four of the top five rankings with potash-rich Saskatoon finishing first, followed by Grande Prairie, Alta.; Joliette, Que.; Moose Jaw, Sask.; and Lloydminster, Alta/Sask. The scores arrived were a combination of retrieving census numbers, labour force survey information and polling the CFIB membership.
Sudbury finished 50th in a ranking of 96 cities, Thunder Bay ranked 58th, followed by North Bay (59th), Sault Ste. Marie (61st) and Timmins (70th).
When it came to ranking local government's sensitivity to small business, North Bay performed the best of all Northern Ontario cities with a 22.1 per cent score. The rest of the region's cities ranked in a single digits with Timmins being the worst at 3.6 per cent.
CFIB said cities in Saskatchewan and Quebec are performing better in providing a good environment for small business development. Especially noticeable are areas outside of large city centre,s which promote business growth with a strong enterpreneurial mindset and “sounder public policy for business.”
The survey rankings are based on a cumulative score based on factors such as net business start-ups, industry employment diversity and local government regulation.
