Fort St. John receives higher business ranking

The City of Fort St. John has moved up in the Canadian rankings of Communities in Boom.

The yearly ranking done by the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses has given the city a ranking of 21st out of 100 cities across the country. The city has moved up from last year’s ranking of 28th.

The ranking is based on 12 factors such as the number of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) that start up in a city, the percentage of the population that is self-employed, if an enterprise believes its business performance will increase, and if the local government is receptive to small businesses.

Although the city has moved up seven spots, its overall score based on the various criteria has increased by less than 2 per cent – from 52.7 to 54.6.

It had an overall rating of 59 per cent for the presence of SMEs and 60 per cent for the City’s policies towards these businesses. However, it only had a 25 per cent rating in the perspective category outlining a business’s growth prospects.

The highest ranking city in this year’s report was Grande Prairie, Alberta. However, it had a 73.1 per cent overall score, meaning that there is still significant growth possible even for the highest ranking city.