More than a third planning to hire
The annual economic survey sent to area businesses by Steinbach MLA, Kelvin Goertzen, shows that local businesses continue to have confidence in the regional economy but are less confident in the overall provincial economy or the performance of the NDP Premier.
“The results reflect both on the strength of the local economy and some of the concerns business owners have about the direction of the province overall, particularly when it comes to debt,” said Goertzen. “The good news is that business owners feel good about where they are locally but the bad news is they see a bit of trouble over the horizon.”
Some of the findings include:
• 27% of business owners feel the local economy is performing “very well” as opposed to only 1% who feel the same about the provincial economy as a whole. Only 7% feel the local economy is performing poorly, while 33% feel the provincial economy as a whole is performing poorly.
• 87% feel the effects of the global financial crisis are not yet over but 61% credit Canada’s banking system for the fact Canada did better during the recession than the U.S.
• 63% of business respondents said they are concerned about the level of personal debt held by consumers and 85% disagree with the decision of the NDP government to eliminate Balanced Budget Legislation.
• 36% of local business owners plan to hire more staff this year while 60% plan to keep current levels. Only 5% plan on reducing staff.
• 49% of business owners said they feel the NDP government has done worse under Greg Selinger than under Gary Doer while 51% feel they have done about the same. Not one respondent felt that the NDP are doing better under Greg Selinger.
• Business owners identified reducing the deficit/debt as their number one priority for the upcoming provincial budget (51%) while reducing red tape for business was second (27%).
Goertzen said about 150 local businesses participated in this year’s survey which he sends annually prior to the provincial budget, which this year will be released on April 12th.
“Business owners create jobs and help keep our communities vibrant. Their views are important because they are the engine of our economy. Clearly their feeling is that out of control spending and increasing debt are harmful to our economy. I think the NDP government would be wise to listen to them.”
