Chamber of Commerce President Jake Lacourse says he’s disappointed in the rankings put out by Canadian Federation of Independent Business earlier this week. He says it’s a very small snapshot of the business community in North Bay. The city was listed as the second worst place to run a business in the report. North Bay received an overall score of 42, down 1.8 percent from last year.
Lacourse says he finds it disheartening that the message coming out this week is that North Bay is a bad place to do business. He says North Bay is a business friendly city. Lacourse says when you’re met with a challenge, you want to communicate that challenge. Lacourse says the CFIB does a great job, but wishes the people who responded to the survey had asked for local help first. He wants businesses in North Bay to know, if they are struggling they can reach out to the chamber to get some help.
Lacourse recognizes the challenges of operating a business, especially in the North with energy problems. He doesn’t want to say it’s all sunshine and rainbows, because it’s not. But Lacourse believes a lot of the challenges that are out there can be mitigated with the right programs they have in place.
