Haliburton County Business and Retention Survey

The County of Haliburton is located in Central Ontario covering 4000 km2, providing residence for over

16 000 people. Haliburton Highlands promotes a high quality of life offering recreational activities for all

seasons, robust arts and cultural community and a strong business sector creating an ideal location for

development and investment.

The Business Retention and Expansion project was initiated by the Haliburton Highlands Chamber of

Commerce with the objective to facilitate business planning and growth by identifying and interviewing

local companies, associations and service groups to determine needs, barriers and opportunities. 15%

of the businesses were interviewed resulting in a significant representation of the business sector.

The businesses boasted a high quality of life and are satisfied with the essential services, support from

municipality, land costs and labour costs. There is generally a positive attitude regarding the future of

the business community reflected by the number of planned expansions and capital investments.

There are many positive attributes to the business community, however the businesses highlighted

many barriers to growth including the seasonality of the market, financial support, labour attraction and

training, information accessibility, marketing and infrastructure. These barriers are addressed with a

comprehensive action plan that contains strategies and evaluation tools.

The community based approach of the Business Retention and Expansion project will create local

commitment while developing a knowledge base of what drives their local economy and how they can

become proactive in setting the direction for long term community sustainability and growth. This will

ensure the community 'buy-in' necessary to implement the BRE Action Plan.