Brighter Together Survey shows positive results

By Lethbridge Herald on January 31, 2026.

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Brighter Together Survey conducted by Economic Development Lethbridge (EDL), the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Lethbridge BRZ has shown that businesses within the city are optimistic about the health of their businesses. 

The survey is done annually to gauge the health of the local business community, identify trends in the data and equip organizers with information to help direct the work they do regarding business retention, expansion, and other initiatives. 

EDL interim CEO Benjamin Young said it is encouraging to see businesses in Lethbridge looking forward to a positive 2026, considering all that is going on in the world including tariffs and trade uncertainty with the United States. 

“We got responses from people in the industrial sector, from downtown, from not-for-profit or other organizations. But really any business or organization in Lethbridge could participate in the survey,” said Young. 

He explained that they asked things like business obstacles for 2025, level of satisfaction with locational business factors, and levels of satisfaction with Downtown programs and attributes. 

“The impact of tariffs was one of those pieces that the businesses could mark themselves on. But the highest business obstacles for 2025 were actually cost of insurance,” said Young. 

He added that labour costs came in second and impacts of tariffs was the third highest business obstacle.

When talking about the level of satisfaction with locational business factors, Young explained that they looked into that to see what businesses in this area think our best strengths and advantages are for them. 

“The post-secondary presence being the highest locational business factor really speaks to the availability of skilled and talented workforce. So, having the University of Lethbridge, and the Lethbridge Polytechnic here in the community, is a great advantage for businesses,” said Young.

He said it is a great advantage because they have access to skilled, talented workforce coming out of post-secondary here in the community that they’re able to employ in their businesses. 

“The other factors on there around proximity to complementary industries that tends to speak about the strength of supply chain here in Lethbridge likely around agriculture, agri-food supply chain as a lot of our large employers are in that sector,” said Young. 

He said that could also be related to things like transportation infrastructure and accessibility to not only highway and road infrastructure, but the rail system as well.

When talking about the levels of satisfaction with downtown programs and attributes, Young said all the categories are higher compared to the previous year. 

“I think that level of satisfaction with downtown programs really speaks to some of the amazing projects and initiatives by the various stakeholders in the region, including the city of Lethbridge itself, the downtown BRZ, and the Chamber of Commerce programs,” said Young. 

He said programs like the Clean Sweep program, events in Festival Square across, and basically all the measurements they had for downtown programs, everything is higher in 2025 that it was for 2024. 

“I think that speaks to great success by all the partners throughout the city who are working on downtown initiatives like safety, having events down there, the downtown incentive program from the city, and the pace of residential development,” said Young.

He also mentioned the fact that the survey helps EDL find out what kind of assistance businesses are really seeking. 

“This helps inform Economic Development Lethbridge and our stakeholders like the Chamber of Commerce, City of Lethbridge and Downtown BRZ, on how we can focus our programs and initiatives over the next year or two to address those business needs,” said Young. 

Full results of the Lethbridge Brighter Together Survey can be found on the Choose Lethbridge website at http://www.chooselethbridge.ca.