Hamilton, ON, April 21, 2016: Today, the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC), released the report, Breaking Barriers: Ontario’s Scale Up Challenge, which identifies the major roadblocks preventing Ontario businesses from expanding and presents recommendations to best support business owners in taking their ventures to the next stage of growth. According to the province-wide report, based on consultation with business owners, sector associations, and other organizations, as well as a survey of over 350 Ontario business owners, too few entrepreneurs are continuing to build their business, or “scale up”, in the province.

“Hamilton, being a mid-sized city with a transitioning economy is particularly affected by challenges in talent development, the attraction of finance capital and creation of ecosystems that maximize SME growth,” said Keanin Loomis, President & CEO of Hamilton Chamber of Commerce. “The results of the consultations are in step with what we’ve been hearing from our members and beyond the report’s recommendations we are already leading initiatives related to knowledge cluster development, Magnet (Labour Market software) and regional economic summits to address these challenges,” added Loomis.

To position Ontario for long-term success, the report proposes recommendations to address six specific barriers preventing businesses from growing, which includes a lack of access to talent with scale-up experience, gaps in the right kinds of financing, and lower incentives to growth offered through public programs.

Chief among the Hamilton Chamber’s recommendations are for governments to improve businesses’ access to talent in the short-term by creating a scale-up visa to quicken access to essential international managerial talent. According to an OCC survey, 63 percent of businesses that are looking to grow face a talent shortage. The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce also encourages governments to gain a better understanding of where current gaps exist in the Canadian financing landscape.

Other recommendations of the report include:

• Realign public programs and incentives to focus supports on high-growth firms
• Encourage greater international trade activity by linking more business support programs to trade
• Improve access to public and private anchor customers by leveraging procurement to strategically invest in growing businesses
• Enable accurate measurement and monitoring of the scale-up challenge by ensuring collaboration between Statistics Canada and industry groups to collect and publicize relevant data
• Professionals with the right skill set to help businesses scale up are too scarce

The OCC’s survey also revealed that the cost of doing business remains a top issue for Ontario employers as 69 percent of business owners looking to grow identified this as a barrier. Through its advocacy efforts on other key policy issues, the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce will continue to highlight the cost of doing business and talent retention as a major challenge facing Hamilton’s business community.

Click HERE to read the report.

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Quotes:

• Allan O’Dette, President & CEO of Ontario Chamber of Commerce: “The release of Breaking Barriers coincides with initiatives currently underway by the governments of Canada and Ontario to help our most promising firms scale up. We have an incredible opportunity to leverage this alignment across government and the business community to tackle this challenge.”
• Sean Mullin, Executive Director of the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship: “Supporting the work of innovators and entrepreneurs across the country is integral to Canada’s future productivity and economic prosperity. Canada and Ontario stand to benefit from focusing efforts on supporting our most promising new firms and helping them succeed on a global stage.”
• Jérôme Nycz, Executive Vice President of BDC Capital: “BDC’s sole purpose is to help Canadian entrepreneurs succeed and grow. While our Growth and Transition Capital Team already supports many entrepreneurs with flexible, patient “scale-up” financing, we see the need for more. That is why we are already exploring additional ways we can help more entrepreneurs find the specialized financing they need to bring their business to the next level. Last year, BDC provided nearly $1.2-billion in lending to Ontario’s small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, $100-million of which was allocated to high-growth, high-potential entrepreneurs in the province.”

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Media Contact:

Huzaifa Saeed | Policy & Research Analyst | Hamilton Chamber of Commerce | t: 905-522-1151 ext: 230 | e: h.saeed@hamiltonchamber.ca

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