The Ontario government has said that they are 'Open For Business' and a report suggests Belleville may be one place to consider doing just that.
 
The 10th Annual Canadian Federation of Independent Business report released this month ranks Belleville high when it comes to entrepreneurial presence.
 
The Friendly City was ranked number 10 on a list of top major Canadian cities in this category -- one of three that determine where cities rank on the group's overall Entrepreneurial Index.
 
Entrepreuneurial presence considers local economies that have lots of business start-ups and a wide range of opportunities resulting from above-average businesses per capita in those markets.
 
The two other categories were entrepreneurial perspective, that is where business owners are the most upbeat and entrepreneurial policy, which focuses on where government legislation that supports the startup and growth of businesses the most.
 
The three category scores added up to a maximum total of 100, with Belleville scoring of 56.5 on the overall Entrepreneurial Index or number 48 out of 125 Canadian cities.
 
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory was number one on the overall list, with a score of 75.0.
 
Winkler, Manitoba was second at 69.7 and Victoriaville, Quebec was in third place at 68.3.
 
Belleville Chamber of Commerce CEO Jill Raycroft talked about the entrepreneurial presence ranking that puts the city in the same breath as Victoria, Montreal and Toronto.
 
"If our entrepreneurial presence is that high, that's impressive.  That suggests to me that something is happening.  They looked at the ability of the community to accomodate entrepreneurs."
 
Raycroft continued, "It would suggest that we are more accomodating, more inviting, more prepared to welcome and support entrepreneurs and their business ideas and if one doesn't work, then there's still an opportunity for something else and I think we're seeing -- even with changeover in business and new businesses beginning -- a lot of that is happening here.  And then, you have the opportunity to try something else because it remains an affordable community, in spite of all the housing issues and everything else that we've got."
 
She credited Trenval, Quintevation and the small-business program that has been supported locally for many years as reasons for Belleville's high presence ranking and its overall showing on the CFIB Entrepreneurial Index.
 
Nearby cities included on the overall index were Cobourg (51), Peterborough (63) and Kingston (108).
 
Raycroft was not surprised by the results from the report.
 
"I think what we don't realize and what people don't know is the enormous capacity that Belleville already has with its current business community and the fact that we have businesses that have global impact all over the place that we just don't talk about regularly."
 
Raycroft planned to expose what she calls a 'hidden job market' over the next few weeks in an attempt to educate people on the local market's 'global environment'.
 
A link to the report here:  https://www.cfib-fcei.ca/sites/default/files/2019-04/Entrepreneurial-Communities-2018.pdf