PETERBOROUGH, ON, April 21, 2016: Today, the Peterborough 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 report, based on interviews with nearly two dozen 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.

The report adds to a recent chorus of voices calling for governments, the business community, and other actors to build on the province’s entrepreneurial spirit by creating the conditions to enable our most promising firms to scale. 

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 Peterborough 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 Peterborough 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 

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 Peterborough Chamber in partnership with the OCC, continues to highlight the cost of doing business as a major challenge facing Ontario’s business community.
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Quotes: 

• Stuart Harrison, President & CEO, Peterborough Chamber of Commerce: “We are seeing innovation in all sectors of Peterborough’s economy, the ability to move a business forward in a timely and efficient matter requires a solid public policy framework. The Chamber is committed to bringing the voice of our members forward to help inform the government and continue to build an entrepreneurial support system here in Peterborough.”

• Mike Skinner, Entrepreneur & Interim CEO, Greater Peterborough Innovation Cluster: “Ensuring that our local businesses with high growth potential have access to the necessary tools for success is paramount for sustainable economic development in our community. It is important for firms to know they have a ready support system at their disposal.”

• Paul Bennett, Ashburnham Realty & Co-Founder of StartUp Peterborough: “A lot of effort has gone into building and nurturing the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Peterborough over the past year and there is more to come.  We are happy to support a push for public policy that encourages growth as it will only help our local businesses thrive in our community and other markets.”  

• 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.”

Survey conducted online between March 3 and April 11, 2016. N=359.
Scaling Up Report

PETERBOROUGH:  
The Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce is proud to be opening the call for nominations for the 13th Annual Peterborough Business Excellence Awards.  The awards publicly recognize and honour local businesses who have demonstrated a passion for excellence.

The Chamber is pleased to announce the addition of the Newcomer Entrepreneur of the Year Award to our event.  This award was established in 2015 by the New Canadians Centre to recognize the achievements of business leadership and community involvement made by newcomers within the Peterborough community.   

“We are very pleased to be partnering with the New Canadians Centre for the Newcomer of the Year award,” said Jason Becker, BDO Canada LLP and Chair of the Chamber Board of Directors.  “The award has been established by the NCC at their annual Gala, and they will now help us recognize this important business sector”.

Thank you to the 2016 Excellence Committee Co-Chairs Angela Jones, Lakeshore Designs and Cheryl Smith, RBC – Royal Bank and the entire committee for their work on the Chamber’s award program.

Early Bird Deadline for Nominations – Monday, April 25th * at 4:30pm
Final Deadline for Nominations – Wednesday, May 25th at 4:30pm
*Nominations received by April 25th at 4:30pm will be entered in our Early Bird Draw to win two tickets to attend the Awards Ceremony.
                                                                 Nominate online: excellencepeterborough.ca
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We will announce three Finalists in each category on Thursday, August 11th, with the award recipients revealed at the Awards Ceremony.

Awards Ceremony – Wednesday, October 19th 
             Location – The Trentwinds International Centre, 264 Lansdowne St. E.
             Time – 5:30pm to 10:00pm
                                         
Awards will be handed out in 18 categories, plus the 4-Under-40 Profiles, Student Business Leadership Bursaries, and the prestigious Business Citizen of the Year Award.  

The Peterborough Business Excellence Awards were established to promote the advancement of responsible business leadership within the community.  We encourage interested businesses to nominate themselves, or to nominate any qualified individual or business for any of the award categories. Nominees do not need to be members of the Chamber of Commerce.
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Please take advantage of our simplified nomination process – complete the nomination online or download the form and submit by email or hardcopy.  
Remember:

• A nominator only needs to complete Part 1**. 
• Nominees will need to complete Part 2.  
• If you are self-nominating, please complete Parts 1 & 2.

**Please note: Business Citizen of the Year nominations must be completely filled out by the nominator.

Excellence Launch Wednesday, April 6, 2016