Don’t ask. We might tell you what we think.

Here we go again. Community and business leaders are invited to attend a session on July 27 in Casselman or on July 28 in Hawkesbury as part of the upcoming Prescott and Russell Strategic Economic Plan.

Very recently, an electronic survey was distributed by the Prescott-Russell Community Development Corporation and its partners, who are undertaking an economic development strategy for the United Counties of Prescott and Russell. The survey is supposed to help in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the existing business base as well as the economic challenges and opportunities within the counties. This information will be part of a comprehensive research process to recommend future priorities for both business expansion and business attraction.

It is hard to criticize the fact that the opinions of business and community stakeholders are being sought. But perhaps the electronic survey is the way to go, especially as during the summer months, one-third of the population is on vacation at any given time.

The survey questions calling out to hear the good, the bad and the ugly from business and community leaders.

What's good and what's bad when it comes to doing business in Prescott-Russell?

What should the counties focus on to attract new economic growth to the counties?

What trends are we missing? What are the challenges facing us? Where should the counties focus efforts in terms of tourism? Who should be responsible for tourism services?

What do we know about provincial or federal funding pgorams and services for small and medium-sized businesses and not-for-profit organizations?
Those are the questions, in a nutshell.

Maybe we need to be surveyed to gather this information, from time to time. But it still feels like we have heard it all before.

Funding programs to help businesses grow and employ more people are great, but there is more information that business owners and taxpayers need to know and this information, included with the questionnaire, might have been helpful. In some cases, the information is not readily available.

How much of our local business expansion depends on government funding?
Has our tourism sector been thriving under the current management system, which is a combination of paid efforts by counties and municipalities and volunteer efforts?

Has economic growth come about under current circumstances or have new businesses opted to establish themselves in our region for more serendipitous reasons unrelated to any concerted effort on the part of counties and municipal economic development staff?

How about a customer service survey of our local population? Are local residents finding what they need locally? What percentage of their disposable income is being spent outside of our region and why?

And how about sharing some information: What is the price tag on seeking public opinion and how influential will survey results be? Will the survey provide information to be considered by our mayors sitting at the county council table as they make decisions about economic development strategies?

Let us hope that in the light of scarce tax dollars everywhere, this survey yields relevant and practical information that will be made available to our mayors, municipal councillors and the public so that we can all evaluate in some small way, how we think things should be going.

Nonetheless, context would have gone a long way in answering these questions intelligently.

If we don't have it, we should at the very least expect our decision-makers to bring honesty and context to the table when focussing on what is working and what is not working in our economic development strategy.