City launching business survey
By Lethbridge Herald on July 8, 2025.
Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
LETHBRIDGE HERALD
The City of Lethbridge has launched a new business survey aimed at better understanding the goals, challenges and needs of local businesses.Â
Darrell Mathews, Chief Financial Officer spoke to media Monday morning and said the survey will be conducted by Deloitte LLP, and businesses will be selected randomly.Â
“If businesses want to be part of the survey, they can go on our website and click on the link and they will be able to put their contact information to be part of one of the survey groups,” said Mathews.Â
He said they are looking for community engagement so the city can better understand how business development and retention can happen, what is working and what needs improvement.Â
The survey will gather insights from business owners and managers about their experiences operating in Lethbridge and their outlooks for the future.Â
“There will be questions on the economic side, on the tourism side and there will be questions on city services as well,” said Mathews.Â
He added that on the economic side, businesses will be asked about the challenges and opportunities they are facing, and the results will help inform the City’s strategies and programs to better serve the business community. Â
When talking about who will benefit from the data gathered, Mathews mentioned that multiple pieces at work that are going to council will benefit from the data. Â
“We are currently working on our MCC development, which is with the Lethbridge District & Exhibition, council is also working on the economic development strategy, and there is also Tourism Lethbridge and EDL fee for service review going on, as well as our development base incentives,” said Mathews.Â
He said all of them will be able to use some of the information gathered through the survey, as the survey will include a wide range of small, large and franchise businesses.Â
The survey will help gauge overall satisfaction, perceptions and sentiments about Lethbridge as a place to own and operate a business. Â
“Businesses will be selected at random by phone or email between July 7 and July 18. The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete, and participation is strongly encouraged,” said Mathews.Â
The information from the survey will help the City better understand the types of supports and assistance needed by business owners and how the City, Development Lethbridge, Tourism Lethbridge and the Lethbridge & District Exhibition can support local business growth now and into the future. Â
“It’s important to actually understand what’s going on in the community, so we can build incentives and direct a development strategy, to help the business community and to be economically prosperous in this area,” said Mathews.Â
16-15
An excellent initiative – surveys of this format really help to establish a dialogue between the authorities and entrepreneurs. I myself faced similar strategic questions when I was planning my company’s entry into the international arena. At that time, information about such a form as Shell company Switzerland was useful to me – it allowed me to quickly start operations abroad with minimal delays. Perhaps someone from the Lethbridge business community will also find this approach useful when scaling.
intrest
This is a great initiative by the City of Lethbridge! As a business owner myself, I really appreciate when local government takes the time to actually listen to what we’re dealing with on the ground. The fact that they’re covering everything from economic challenges to tourism and city services shows they understand how interconnected these issues are for businesses.
I’m particularly interested in how they’ll use this data for the economic development strategy – that could really make a difference for local businesses if done right. For any business owners reading this who want additional support while navigating growth challenges, I’ve had good experiences with SupportYourApp for various business support needs.
Hope more cities follow Lethbridge’s lead on this kind of comprehensive business engagement. Looking forward to seeing what comes out of this survey!