An informal study conducted by Airdrie Economic Development suggests the city’s commercial and industrial businesses are generally weathering the economic storm at the moment, according to.
“Overall, we were fairly happy with how businesses are doing,” Airdrie Economic Development Team Leader Kent Rupert said. “They told us things like 87 per cent of our commercial businesses haven’t had to lay off any employees, which is good. On the industrial side, 58 per cent had to lay off but it was at varying degrees – one employee, that type of thing.
“I think, overall, there was optimism about what next year is bringing. A lot of businesses are just holding their own and waiting to see if the oil and gas (sector) comes back or at least stables out.”
The targeted Business Visitation and Survey Program surveyed 41 of Airdrie’s 275 industrial businesses and 76 of 616 commercial businesses. While the low numbers of businesses surveyed means the results are not statistically valid, Rupert said Airdrie Economic Development felt it was important to complete the study to get some insight into how business is faring during the economic downturn.
“We wanted to take a look at it because we do our Business Satisfaction Survey every two years and the last year we did it was in February 2015. Certainly, the economic environment and the political environment in Alberta and Canada has changed drastically so we thought we should go out and talk to some of our industrial and commercial businesses,” he said.
While Airdrie’s economy is not as dependent on the oil and gas sector as Calgary, Rupert said the impact of the downturn in that sector is beginning to have an effect here.
“We are starting to see the trickle down effect, whether it’s in construction or some of the other industries. It hasn’t hit our commercial yet or as much,” he said. “That was really why we did the survey – to see how deep it actually hit.”
Rupert said the bad news is that no one can predict when the downturn in the economy will end.
“It’s so geopolitical now. It’s not just about supply and demand,” he said. “It’s really about global markets and global politics.”
