Stouffville business outlook 'optimistic' despite 'challenging' provincial forecast

Stouffville Chamber of Commerce membership in 2017 stands at 245

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 14, 2017
By Ali Raza

The town’s businesses are punching well above their weight, according to the Stouffville Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber, in partnership with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, released an inaugural Ontario Economic Report (OER). The report is an economic analysis of the province’s business environment and highlights challenges that businesses and consumers face in 2017.

Chambers of commerce from municipalities all across Ontario were involved in the OER.

“We remain somewhat optimistic for our region despite the identified challenges,” said Stouffville chamber executive director Harry Renaud.

The Stouffville chamber has seen steady growth as it added 41 new members in 2016 and lost 22. In 2015, the chamber added 27 new members. As of 2017, the chamber has a total of 245 members.

Renaud says 45 per cent of those members are small businesses with three or less employees, he says this could be vulnerability.

“The bigger guys can survive,” Renaud said. “But some are facing challenges because of the implications of Main Street construction.”

Those challenges can be addressed by “education, signage and communication,” Renaud added.

A steady growth in small businesses - despite some recent closures — is in stark difference to the wider, provincial outlook forecasted by the economic report.

Findings show that business prosperity in Ontario are “increasingly generated from asset and liability management instead of production of goods and services,” the Stouffville Chamber’s press release states.

While real GDP growth rate in Ontario has averaged 2.6 between 2000 and 2006, the OER states the source of wealth generated from the production of goods and services declined by 12 per cent. It adds that since the 2008 recession, production dropped a further 12 per cent.

OCC president and CEO Allan O’Dette blames “regulatory burdens, high input costs and government policies” for Ontario’s “hampered economic growth.”

As of January 2017, the province’s unemployment rate is 6.4 per cent, while Toronto’s is 6.8 per cent. The town’s economic development officer David Tuley estimates Whitchurch-Stouffville’s unemployment rate to be between 4.5 and 5 per cent.

While the town’s Main Street reconstruction project is ongoing, business growth with the Stouffville Chamber has been “all over the place, we have landscapers, developers, retailers,” Renaud said.