A profile with respect to business and industry in the area has been developed with respect to:

• community consultation

• business and industry characteristics

• commercial and industrial activity

• current and emerging trends and patterns.

• key concerns voiced by business respondents were the need for diversified economic development, the aging population and the future ability of the community to attract back its youth, the lack of housing to meet the needs of the community, the attitude/“work ethic” of the workforce, and the contradiction in perceptions from within the various sectors of the community with respect to the severity of community-based social issues

• indications are that business growth has increased significantly with a total of $650,000 in industrial building permits, $22,132,162 in commercial permits, and $12,660,000 residential development

• building permits increased by over 30% between 1999 and 2000 with a similar decrease between 2000 and 2001

• well over 500 new jobs have been created since 1996

• the unemployment rate hovers around 4% for both the City and County

• many of the businesses are committed long term members of the community although there has been some turn over with businesses who have duplicated existing services/products

• growth has occurred locally in the retail and commercial sectors with a large development in the west end of Camrose

• the mall is experiencing difficulty in retaining/attracting tenants and issues appear to include “poaching” occurring as a result of the new development, high leasing costs, and policy decisions made by external head offices

• other sectors showing growth include financial/insurance/real estate, and health/social services

• Alberta’s critical growth areas include agriculture and agrifood, business services, electronics, environmental services, forestry, furniture. learning, machinery, personal services, petrochemicals, retail and wholesale trade, telecommunications, and tourism

• 31% of Camrosians are employed in sales and service occupations, 19% in business and administration occupations, and 13% in transportation and equipment occupations
• 30% of Camrosians were employed in the retail and food service/accommodation industry sectors, and 16% in the health/social service industry sectors
• a pattern of steady growth in entrepreneurship and self employment emerged over the last ten years 10 years

• from 1991 to 1996 self employment in incorporated companies increased over 60% and by almost 40% in non-incorporated companies

Consultation with business and industry included a survey of businesses distributed by a mail drop, informal interviews with business and one discussion group with the Chamber of Commerce.

The following data provides an overview of the characteristics of the community in terms of business and industry.

Statistics Canada revised the categories significantly in 1996 therefore it is not possible to make meaningful comparisons between the various occupational sectors between 1991 and 1996.

The City of Camrose offers a number of supports for business including economic development and planning departments. The Camrose Business Development Centre, East Parkland Community Futures Development Corporation, Agricultural Financial Services Corporation, and Alberta Economic Development provide a broad range of services. Active organizations including a range of service clubs, the Camrose and District Chamber of Commerce, and the Camrose Regional Exhibition.

There is no business tax and no tax on manufacturing equipment. Business licenses are affordable.

A full range of business services including banking, consulting, copying, office supplies and technology supports can be found in the community.

This section sets out the commercial and industrial activity in the area.

Observations:

• indications are that business growth has increased significantly with a total of $650,000 in industrial building permits, $22,132,162 in commercial permits, and $12,660,000 residential development

• building permits increased by over 30% between 1999 and 2000 with a similar decrease between 2000 and 2001

• well over 500 new jobs have been created since 1996

• Camrose offers a thriving retail, commercial and hospitality sector

• commercial/retail space is available in downtown Camrose and in the West End

• commercial vacancy is very low too non--existent in the County

• a pattern of steady industrial activity can be seen over the last decade however many of the jobs are seasonal

• little industrial/warehousing/manufacturing space is available

• retail and commercial activity can be found to the greatest extent in the downtown and west end of the City of Camrose
• the mall is experiencing difficulty in retaining/attracting tenants and issues appear to include “poaching” occurring as a result of the new development, high leasing costs, and policy decisions made by external head offices
• pockets of activity are located in smaller communities in the area
• large commercial entities include Wal-Mart, Safeway, IGA Garden Market, Staples, Totem, and Superstore
• a thriving hospitality sector offers a variety of accommodation and dining experiences

Industrial activity is focused mainly on the Northeast end of the city with the remainder mixed with other commercial areas. A range of large and small businesses operate from the industrial areas in Camrose and area including:

Sections H.5.1 through H.5.4 provide an overview of emerging trends and patterns in:

• small business

• self employment

• home-based business

• general economic issues.

• small business accounted for 63.5% of the 200,000 new jobs created in Canada between 3^{rd quarter 2000-2001, a large increase from the beginning of 2000 where small business accounted for only 27.1%}

• a report completed in 2001 by the Western Centre for Economic Development, Portraits of Small Business Growth and Change in Western Canada 1988-1999 reported that from 1992-1999 the number of businesses in Western Canada made up 36.8% of the national total and 98.4% of that was small business

• Alberta had an annual average of 205,806 micro-businesses (82.9%) and grew 26% in the number of small businesses during this time period

• in Alberta the number of small businesses per thousand people was 8.93 as compared to the national average of 6.16

• from 1992-1999 8,000 new businesses emerged in Alberta and 50.5% of all new small business was unincorporated self-employment without paid help

• 95% of the businesses in Alberta are considered small businesses with less than 50 employees, 75% are micro businesses with less than 5 employees

• the private sector is responsible for 94% of the employment growth in Alberta over the last 4 years

• one third of all Alberta workers are employed by small business

• 34% of new micro business in Canada each year was in Western Canada of which 27.9% was in Alberta

• by major industry sector, distribution of small business in Alberta was 35.3% goods and 64.7% service with a ratio of 1:2 as opposed to a national ratio of 1:4

• the top four industry sectors by concentration of small business in Western Canada were Agriculture/Forestry/ Fishing/Hunting, Trade, Business Services and Construction

• micro business in Western Canada by comparison has a has a flipped ratio of 2:1 with 20% in Agriculture/ Forestry/Fishing/Hunting, 18% in Business Services and 10% each in Construction, Trade and Health/Social Care/Education sectors

• micro business constitutes at least 70% of small business in each industry in Western Canada although businesses with 5-49 employees are more evident in trade, business services, health/education services and accommodation/food service sectors

• Alberta has recorded the highest rate of growth in new business in Canada over the period 1995 - 1997

• for men the growth was concentrated in four service industries: services to business primarily computing services and management consulting; other services such as janitorial and window cleaning, operating retail or wholesale establishments; and financial, insurance and real estate

• for women the growth was concentrated in: health and social services, services to business primarily accounting, bookkeeping, and management consulting, and other personal services such as personal services

• according to a study done by the Western Centre for Economic Research, February 2002, some small businesses are successfully developing networks, associations, clusters and partnerships to use collaboration as a growth and productivity tool

• according to a Community Competitiveness Study done in 1999 by Industry & Trade, small business manufacturing areas showing high growth such as food, furniture and fixture and machinery tend to locate in the smaller communities

• others such as electrical and electronic products tend to locate in the larger cities where technically competent entrepreneurs form alliances and the skills needed are readily available

• the same study indicates the service sector provides an average of 73.2% of jobs in Alberta and a large part of that is small businesses or self-employed individuals

• this includes producer services such as transportation, communication, engineering, design, consulting, accounting and legal services, marketing and computer services

• other areas of service include consumer including retailing, personal service, restaurants, recreation, tourism, childcare and entertainment

• food processing and manufacturing is the largest sector in Alberta and there are many market niches that are being served by small business in small communities as the trend goes to more specialty crops such as herbals

• E-commerce opportunities are huge and growing rapidly for small business and self-employment with Canada being one of the most connected countries in the world

• according to a Small Business Information Needs Assessment Survey done by COMPAS Inc, for Industry Canada, almost half the small business population say they do not use the internet for business purposes and only 14% use it often

• of those who do use the Internet the majority use it for gathering business information and communicating with customers with only 33% of use being for sales and 16% to hire new staff

• in the janitorial field many large organizations are outsourcing their janitorial work resulting in 98% of the janitorial sector being small business

• an average growth of 6% has occurred in the number of janitor businesses and an increase of 3% in Canada and 4% in Alberta for revenues in this field.

• according to Small Business Quarterly (Source - Strategis) in 2000 23% of small businesses requested debt financing of which 82% were successful, most using their regular financial institution

• According to the Monthly Economic Review April 2002 done by Alberta Policy and Analysis for the time period January 2001-February 2002 business bankruptcies increased by 30.5%. For the period January 2000-December 2001 new business incorporations increased by 3.4%.

• data collected from Canadian Business Patterns and Labour Force Survey by the aforementioned report show that 8.52 small businesses per thousand people in Western Canada is 40% higher than the national statistic and micro business was greater than 4/5 businesses in Western Canada

• growth in small business numbers averaging 23,400 per year was heavily weighted by growth in unincorporated self-employed without paid help, which accounted for 70% of small business creation.

• according to the previously mentioned report the top three growth rate sectors in Alberta were business services, health/social services and transportation with the top three growing industry groups in Alberta were other financial intermediaries, food and construction followed closely by high tech growth

• the top three small business job creation sectors were business, food/beverage and trade contracting with the top three industry groups being deposit accepting intermediaries, other financial intermediaries and construction and 6,632 high tech jobs created by small business

• according to the Portraits of Small Business report estimated survival rates for firms in the first year in the 1990s in Alberta was 74.5% and 31% by the 6th year with micro business dominating both the entries and exits having a lower survival rate but being cheaper to enter

• in micro business the level of entry and exit were largest for Other Services, business services, retail, construction, agriculture and accommodation/food/beverage. In comparison the larger small businesses had the highest level of entry and exit in the accommodation/food/beverage, wholesale, retail and business services

• with all this, in Alberta the average annual entries exceeded the exits except for agriculture

• the aforementioned paper reported that from 1988-1997 that with the average annual small business entries per 100 people 15 plus years old almost 1 of every 100 people was starting a business annually not including unincorporated self-employed without paid help

• this put Western Canada’s entrepreneurial activity at 40% higher than the rest of Canada.

• according to the Western Centre report, the small business trend from 1995-1999, including unincorporated self-employed without paid help, had a medium concentration in the Camrose/Drumheller & Red Deer areas with 22,600 and 20,200 small businesses respectively and an annual increase of less than 100 businesses each per year

• finally, the Western Centre report indicated that from 1995-1999 Alberta led small business development in the high tech sector with about 500-800 firms in the Red Deer area but only 240 in the Camrose/Drumheller region (the lowest)

• in contrast, the Camrose/Drumheller region high tech growth rate was the second highest area in Alberta with an 11.1% average annual growth rate

• in conclusion, measured in per capita terms, small business density is greatest in more rural regions

• the growth rate of self-employed for those same areas averaged 3.65%

• self-employment by gender was quite different in the two regions with the growth rate in Camrose/Drumheller for females being 6% and males being almost 0%

• Red Deer area on the other hand had an equal rate for both sexes at about 3%

• according to a Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey 2.3 million people were self-employed at the end of 2001, which is down 2.6% from the end of 2000

• from 1995-2001 the Western provinces accounted for 37% of the number of self-employed in Canada with an annual growth of 1.6%

• from 1992-1999 8,000 new businesses emerged in Alberta and 50.5% of all new small business was unincorporated self-employment without paid help

• according to a Longitudinal Analysis of Young Entrepreneurs in Canada done for Strategies research there was a creation of 599,000 jobs in self-employment from 1990-1997 as opposed to 177,000 in paid jobs

• self-employment is more prevalent for men than women however, growth is occurring more rapidly for women

• in 1996 only 25% of self-employed were under 35 years old with the highest percentage being in the 55 and over age bracket showing incidence of self-employment increasing with age

• the incidence of self-employment without paid help has increased in the 1990s

• more and more women with children are turning to self-employment with an increase of 6.189% in the 30-59 age bracket from 1990-1995 but no growth in the 20-29 age bracket for that same time frame

• from 1990 - 1995 there was an increase in self-employment for males of 2.91%

• the percentage of people exiting self-employment is significantly higher

• according to the Monthly Economic Review April 2002 done by Alberta Policy and Analysis for the time period January 2001-February 2002 business bankruptcies increased by 30.5%

• for the period January 2000-December 2001 new business incorporations increased by 3.4%

• self-employed without paid help were the major small business group making up 57.3% of small business, a number mirrored by Alberta

• micro business (1-4 employees and unincorporated self-employed without paid help accounted for 81.9% of all business

• according to Future Knowledge, a report for Canada’s Coalition for Public Information with the advent of electronic information and business, there is a great opportunity for small and home based business

• advantages include direct delivery of services and goods, ability to work from home, allowing people with disabilities access to the same information, learning and job opportunities as the general population.

• home work, telework, contract work and all forms of flexible work are on the rise and traditional offices, retail outlets and financial institutions are closing down as new ways develop

• the ability to gain immediate access to business and marketing information is increasing

• a report by Steven Globerman with Industry Canada indicates that electronic commerce is growing slower in Canada than in the United States

• in 1996 Statistics Canada indicated that of the Canadians who were self employed, 53% were home-based

• home based business tends to focus on the service industry including business and personal services, professional services, technology and trades

• 72% of people who live in rural communities are involved in home based business at some level

• a 1999 report on Alberta Trends by People Patterns Consulting indicates that 11% of Alberta’s population works at home and a further 10% works at no fixed address

• a 1993 National Work-At-Home survey by Link Resources indicated that by the end of the 1990’s as many as one of every three workers will be engaged in a full-time or part-time home based business venture

• according to Discount News Volume 35, July-September 1996, home based franchising is rising due to more flexible lifestyles and mothers wanting to stay home

• the rise of the service economy often means that the “product” is expertise that doesn’t need warehousing or sophisticated office environs

HRDC and Industry Canada have identified emerging sectors considered to be high growth areas including:

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