Businesses in North Bay filling out a business retention and expansion survey said community safety remains the top concern.
But there are other issues, including hiring challenges, the need for more skilled labour as well as high municipal taxes.
“There’s definitely a shortage of skilled labour in the area,” said Jake Grasser, general manager of Metal Fab, a local manufacturing company. “I think it’s more of a global problem.”
Metal Fan employees provide machining, fabrication and powder coating for its clients located across Canada.
A total of 250 businesses participated in the survey and 248 red flags were raised.
It was presented in a staff report that was part of a larger presentation on growth to a special committee meeting of council Tuesday night.
“We’re working with the college and university to make sure future graduates are coming out with those skillsets that businesses need,” said North Bay and District Chamber of Commerce president Peter Chirico.
From the survey, community safety was top of mind and was mentioned 115 times.
Downtown business owner Barry Klus said the city doing its best with the situation, but admits there are still issues.
“We’ve had a rash of break-ins and that was last year,” said Klus, who owns Cheapskates bike shop on Main Street.
“It just so happens that we had window breaks and door breaches.”
North Bay Mayor Al McDonald acknowledges the problem and said the city’s additional police resources are helping.
“We developed the community safety and well-being plan. We’ve hired more police officers for the street,” McDonald said.
“We’re hiring someone to put the safety and well-being plan in place.
The survey indicates quality of life is the top advantage of conducting business in North Bay and employers like being centrally located in proximity to nearby markets.
“North Bay is a good spot for manufacturing. It’s in a good hub of the region,” Grasser said. “There’s Sudbury, Timmins, and the mines up north and we can hit the manufacturing industries in the south.”
Nearly 70 per cent of businesses said North Bay is a good place to conduct business and just shy of half of those surveyed have plans to expand operations within the next two years.
