Barrie business owners should soon be ready for a teenager with a clipboard at their front doors.
The city’s second business and employer data survey will take place from May through August, creating a comprehensive list of Barrie’s workplaces operating in the employment and commercial areas.
A team of trained summer students going door-to-door should be hitting the pavement in a few weeks said Stephannie Schlichter, the city’s director of economic and creative development.
“What we are doing is getting a full, on-the-street account of who’s here from our businesses,” she said to Barrie councillors Monday night, “and validating who’s here, (their) employees and getting some basic data that allows us to understand as we get into year-over-year employment growth, trending, types and uses within our industrial and commercial area.
“That (survey results) supports both economic development functions, it supports planning functions, transit and some other departments across the city as we look at some of our decision making," Schlichter added.
Data collected in 2021 serves as the baseline year. Last year, more than 4,300 businesses were visited with a 72 per cent response rate.
As future surveys are done, the city will monitor economic trends, support business retention, inform planning data, forecast infrastructure needs and assist with transportation planning.
Select data will also provide the public and stakeholders — the chamber of commerce, Business Improvement Association (BIA), Tourism Barrie — with a business directory and valuable supply-chain information.
Similar to last year, the 2022 survey will focus on employment and commercial locations but won’t include home-based establishments. Strategies to include home-based businesses will be explored in the future.
All information received from businesses will be entered into the ArcGIS Field Maps application, which is supported by the city’s IT department.
If necessary, the summer students will gather information through additional online research and by phone interviews. A link will be shared across social media platforms and shared with community partners for businesses that may want to self-supply their information. Students will then follow-up with those businesses to fill in any missing data.
Survey participation is voluntary, so businesses may refuse to participate, or they may choose to only answer some of the questions.
Any public information — business name, location and general contact information — will be used to create a business directory and remaining information will be released in an aggregate form, where appropriate.
Schlichter said the goal is to have some of the preliminary data available to Barrie councillors in September.
For more information, visit investbarrie.ca/beds2022.
