Are you a local business owner? The City of Prince George would like to hear from you.

As part of its Business Retention and Expansion program, the city is once again giving local business owners an opportunity to tell them what it’s like to be a proprietor in Prince George.

Manager of Economic Development Melissa Barcellos says the city is looking for insight into the local business climate.

“The economic development staff are going to be reaching out to at least 60 businesses over the course next 3 or 4 months to talk to them about the opportunities and challenges that they see in the community and how we can help them in order to support their businesses to grow and diversify.”

Barcellos says information from the interviews will be used to guide municipal programming and initiatives in support of the business community.

“The purpose of the interviews really is to hear directly from the business community their impression of the local economy and the business climate here in Prince George,” says Barcellos. “There’s a whole variety of questions about their business, local business climate, different organizations in town and who they’re working with, where they see opportunities to work with the city, how we can help them moving forward.”

The city wants to hear the good and the bad about owning and operating a business in Prince George, says Barcellos.

“We’re going into it hoping to hear some new positives and to see where we can help to support the businesses moving forward.”

The interviews are set to begin this month and will run through until the fall. Interested business owners and managers can contact the City’s Business Development Officer, Bahar Mostofee-Afshar at [email protected] or 250-561-7633.