Municipality ranked one of Canada's top ten business-friendly communities

UncleSam

(Fort McMurray, AB – October 21, 2010) – Wood Buffalo has been named one of Canada's Top Ten Entrepreneurial Cities for 2010, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo announced today.

Wood Buffalo was ranked in the top ten (#10 overall) according to a study released by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). The methodology used to determine rankings included businesses per capita, industry diversity, increase in full-time hiring expectations, government awareness of small businesses, local government tax balance and more. Rankings included more than 100 Canadian municipalities with a population of at least 25,000.
! u5 ?5 q: `& j
4 r8 D- t- x* o- f! f"This is a huge honour for Fort McMurray's business community and our region as a whole as we try to attract more commercial development in the future", said Mayor Melissa Blake. "With our Economic Development Strategy that was approved by Council in June 2010, we hope to go even higher in the rankings for 2011."
4 S3 [; {% N8 i1 M# Y* v& \$ |9 e
2 P$ g1 X% g8 b( p3 [: M4 uThe 2010 ranking marks an improvement of four spots from 2009 where Wood Buffalo finished in 14th place.

/ G( W. t4 Q6 s; h$ x) Y) u2 z, e"These results are really a testament to the strength of the business environment here in Wood Buffalo," said Jeff Penney, Manager of Economic Development. "Earlier this year we were named one of the top ten places in Alberta to do business and now we have been recognized nationally. The word is certainly getting out that Wood Buffalo is open for business and that bodes well for us as we move forward on a number of business attraction and business retention projects"

The Municipality's Economic Development Branch has already highlighted areas that can be improved on to obtain a higher ranking for next year, including the implementation of the Economic Development Strategy and the soon to be launched Municipal E-Permitting System.

  c+ t- s) d7 r0 K8 ]" e) j% W' aTo view the complete CFIB study, please visit:
http://www.cfib-fcei.ca/cfib-documents/rr3206.pdf