Cowichan Valley residents overwhelmingly support an economic development function that generates new jobs for the region, according to an informal survey conducted by the Cowichan Post.
Respondents randomly invited to participate in the survey also narrowly favoured the Cowichan Valley Regional District over the Municipality of North Cowichan when asked who was best equipped to guide economic development.
Cowichan Post made use of Survey Monkey to compile results of the survey. Since the survey was informal there is no data available on the demographics of who participated and where they live.
Respondents clearly saw job creation as a good thing and did not see efforts to attract those jobs negatively impacting their quality of life.
The results show participants welcomed a range of new business development ranging from health care to forestry and logging, with high tech slightly ahead of other options.
A majority thought job creation would help keep families together in the Valley and definitely thought new business development would help keep property taxes from rising too quickly.
The survey results identified local governments as a barrier to job creation because they are perceived as making it difficult for businesses to get started.
That seems like something we all know, almost common sense, because we here it all the time from various people.
The real question is, if we all think it is true, why don’t we do something about it?