Upon the very successful completion of the BC Skills Force Southern Initiative, the Community Futures Development Association of BC and the BC Chamber of Commerce continued their investigation of the issue of skills shortages and its impact on small business, in the northern regions. Their goal was to connect directly with northern BC businesses, through focus group sessions and a telephone/web survey, to get their perspective on the issue and to engage them in the process of helping to develop potential solutions.

The Northern Initiative involves a focus group session in each of the following ten communities:

Dawson Creek	Prince Rupert	Vanderhoof
Fort St. John	Quesnel	Williams Lake
Houston	Smithers
Prince George	Terrace

 

During the months of March and April 2006, a telephone/web survey will solicit approximately 2,000 northern BC businesses requesting their opinions on the skilled labour issues and its impact on businesses in the north.

By the end of May 2006, information from the focus group sessions and the telephone/web survey will be compiled into a Final Report, which will detail the methodology of the project, the findings, issues and challenges, and recommended action.

 

The reports for the Northern and Southern Initiatives will be combined to create a Final Report that will represent the concerns, issues and recommended actions for the rural areas of the province of British Columbia.

A broad cross section of the business community were asked to participate in the focus group sessions, and the mix of participants comprised representatives from the following:

 

The focus group sessions are designed to actively engage the business community in the process of identifying the challenges they are facing in accessing skilled labour and provide a forum for them to offer their input on potential strategies to address the skill shortage and aging workforce issues. Businesses are also asked for their views on how training institutions and/or other small business service providers might work more closely with the business community to address these issues. The input received from the participants will contribute to the development of a survey questionnaire which will be distributed to over 10,000 businesses.