SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - This may have been Richard Truscott's first visit to Yellowknife, but he quickly noticed what a lot of residents have been noticing about the city's economy over the past several months.

Richard Truscott and Corinne Pohlmann of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business were in Yellowknife May 19-20 to discuss the city's economic climate with politicians, bureaucrats and the organization's members. - Terrence McEachern/NNSL photo

"Just walking around, we've certainly seen quite a few empty shops," said Truscott, the director of provincial affairs for the Canadian Federation of Business in Alberta, referring to the city's downtown core.

Truscott, who joined the CFIB two years ago, and Corinne Pohlmann, vice-president of national affairs with the organization, were in Yellowknife May 19-20 to meet with politicians, bureaucrats and independent businesses in the city to discuss the territories' current economic climate.

Pohlmann said the likely reasons for the decline in the downtown core are the rental costs and the development of other parts of the city attracting businesses to relocate at a lower cost.

"Perhaps the city needs to look at its (downtown) core again and think about how to make the core more attractive to businesses. And every city struggles with that," she said.

The CFIB, a political advocacy and lobby group established 40 years ago, has 108,000 members across

Canada with about 250 members in the NWT and 150 in Yellowknife. The criteria for membership is not based on the number of employees, but rather that the business must be Canadian and independently owned and operated, said Pholmann.

Truscott said members are telling him some of the challenges they face are the lack of skilled labour, high energy and electricity costs and the frustration and wasted time dealing with government "red tape."

Truscott said that the number of empty shops he's seen is reflected in the CFIB's Business Barometer Index, a ranking and measurement of independent businesses' confidence in the economy by province and territory. For the period of May 2010 to May 2011, the NWT ranks eighth at 65 per cent, the low end of what the CFIB considers to be a good level of confidence.

"Anything between 65 and 75 per cent is pretty good optimism among small business owners saying that the economy is improving and the performance of their business is expected to be pretty good." Topping the list is Alberta with 70.8 per cent and coming in last is P.E.I. at 63.2 per cent.

Yellowknife is still coming to grips with the recent global recession, said Truscott, and even though the recession hit the North later than other parts of the country, the effects "have hung on longer," he said.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said the key to the future success of small businesses in the city is to encourage residents to shop locally rather than over the Internet or when travelling, and to encourage local retailers to provide the same quality products and the level of service that customers experience elsewhere.

Another challenge facing independent businesses in the North is the competition for customers against large retailers such as The Brick and Staples. Truscott said the keys for independent retailers are to focus on building solid customer service relationships and to offer quality products. He added that retailers can still be competitive in terms of prices, but that independent businesses can benefit by focusing on specialized, niche areas rather than following the broad retail strategy of larger store.

Jeannie Rocher, owner of Quality Furniture and a member of the CFIB, agrees. "We don't carry the same lines, and customer relations is so important on this," said Rocher, referring to how her business has responded to the Brick store opening in Yellowknife. "Looking after your customers is key."

She added that independent businesses set themselves apart from larger retailers by the role they play in the community, reminiscent of the role her business played in helping a Latham Island family after a fire destroyed their home on Dec. 23. "We, on a regular basis, give back to our community. It's not like on a big grand opening or on a special occasion. We do it on a weekly basis, as most of the small businesses in town do."

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