Northern cities struggle in entrepreneur rankings

Greater Sudbury finished 108th out of 121 municipalities in a survey rating Canada's most entrepreneurial cities.

Sudbury finished with a score of 47.2, compared to a group of municipalities near Calgary, the top finisher, which scored 73. The highest ranking Northern city in the annual survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business was Timmins, which finished 71st with a score of 54.3, and Thunder Bay, which finished 88th with a score of 51.7. The top ranking city closest to Sudbury was Barrie, which came in 26th with a score of 62.2.

Other Northern cities on the rankings include Sault Ste. Marie (99th, with a score of 49.1) and North Bay, which finished second-last at 120th with a score of 43.8. Montreal finished dead last with a score of 36.1.

Factors that determined the rankings are grouped into three categories: presence, which represents the number of entrepreneurs in a city and how fast they are growing; perspective, which reflects how optimistic the entrepreneurs about future prospects; and policy, which reflect how local government policies affect entrepreneurs in terms of taxes and regulation.

Sudbury got 4.1 out of 25 on presence, 16.5 out of 35 on perspective and 26.6 out of 40 on policy, for a total score 47.2, down 0.5 from 2014.

Drilling down into the rankings, the number of entrepreneurs operating businesses with employees in Sudbury dropped by 6.5 per cent between June 2014 and 2015. About 6.6 per cent of residents are self-employed, among the lower ranking among the 121 cities. A total of 19.3 per cent of businesses expect to hire in the coming year, while 37.5 per cent reported that their business is in good shape.

Already known as Canada's happiest city, 89.3 per cent of businesses reported they were happy to live and work here, although 36.8 per cent reported that the cost of local government was a concern when it came to the success of their business.

About 58.5 per cent of businesses said local government regulations were a burden, but that is lower than most cities. For example, 70.7 per cent of business owners in the Sault were concerned about local government regulations, as well as 74.4 per cent in Ottawa.

Despite all the data, the Canadian Federal of Independent Business survey found that some of the biggest factors when it comes to entrepreneurship are beyond the control of individual municipalities.

For example, cities dependent on commodity prices – which includes Sudbury – are bound to suffer economically when prices are low. Or towns located near major urban centres often benefit because entrepreneurs there can access a major market without the higher cost of operating a business in a big city.

“City boundaries and government structures are relevant, insofar that they become the basis for data collection and measurement,” the report said. “But,
they are often arbitrary or meaningless from an economic development standpoint.

“In some cases entrepreneurship is rooted in neighbourhood characteristics; in others it may be because of regional economic advantages.”

Read the full report here.