The Whistler Chamber of Commerce is urging local businesses and their staff to participate in a B.C.-wide business survey that the organization intends to use to lobby government officials on the resort's behalf.
The local chamber has partnered with the BC Chamber of Commerce on its annual Collective Perspective Survey, the province's largest and most comprehensive business survey. The survey's results, expected by the end of November, will be shared with the provincial and federal government as they plan the budget for 2020, and beyond.
Locally, Whistler Chamber CEO Melissa Pace said the feedback should paint a more fulsome picture of the issues facing the resort's business sector, and could be leveraged at the municipal level, as well as at more senior levels of government.
"By doing this, Whistler businesses will be able to weigh in on everything from how climate change is impacting their brand, to how we can better support female entrepreneurs," she explained.
"As we build our Whistler numbers, we'll get more regional insight. This also means we'll have hard data around the hot topics in our community. Then when we meet with the local and provincial governments, we'll have this hard data to work with."
Since launching, more than 70 Whistler respondents have taken the survey. The chamber is aiming to have at least 150 by the time the survey concludes on Oct. 31.
Judging from the results so far, some of which Pace shared with
Pique, many of the issues that have been at the forefront of Whistler's business sector over the past few years persist heading into 2020. A third of those surveyed called employee recruitment and retention "a major challenge," while 31 per cent said it was "the most difficult" challenge facing their business.
Seventy per cent of respondents said the availability of workers worsened over the last year, while 78 per cent named housing as a "very big" factor in obtaining and retaining staff.
Although the longstanding local challenges around housing and labour should come as no surprise to most Whistlerites, Pace said it's important to gather consistent, ongoing data that can be taken to Victoria or Ottawa.
"Year over year, this isn't going away. You can't stop providing information, you can't stop surveying, even though the results may be the same. The fact that they're the same, and in this case worsening, it's so important [to have that data]," she said, adding that Whistler needs "more housing now, not two years from now."
The survey, which is administered by the BC Chamber at a value of roughly $30,000, Pace said, will also provide the kind of long-term, multi-year view into the local business sector that the Whistler Chamber doesn't have the resources to offer.
"When we at the chamber put out a survey ... it's not going to give us the same intel, and certainly not the same level of reporting," she said. "We just don't have the budget to create something so comprehensive."
The survey is open to all B.C.-based businesses and their staff, and you don't have to be a chamber member to participate. Find it at bcmindreader.com/c/r/collective-perspective-2019-whistler.
