What is the Town of Ajax Business Retention & Expansion Program?

To assess the current business climate and better understand the services that businesses need, the Economic Development & Tourism Team is initiating a Business Retention and Expansion (BR&E) program to collect the following information in 2023:

  • Are businesses expanding and growing?
  • Are they expressing common concerns or problems?
  • What are the trends in the overall market and in key sectors?
  • How can the Ajax Economic Development & Tourism Team address concerns and help local businesses succeed?

The BR&E program will be delivered as a Capstone Project, led by the Ajax Economic Development & Tourism Team in partnership with Ontario Tech University’s Faculty of Business and Information Technology, CityStudio Durham Region, and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The results from the project will inform future Town of Ajax Economic Development Action Plans and programming.

As an Ajax Business, what should I expect?

Students from Ontario Tech University's Faculty of Business and Information Technology will be contacting businesses to assist with the completion of a BR&E survey which includes questions on the following topics:

  • General Business Information
  • Business Climate (general impression of Ajax from your business perspective)
  • Future Plans (downsizing, relocating, selling, expanding, closing)
  • Business Development (outlook, sales, products or services)
  • Workforce (hiring, access to labour)
  • Community Development (Ajax's advantages and disadvantages as a place to do business)
  • Sector specific questions (Agriculture, Downtown Retail, Local Food, Manufacturing, Mining, Natural Resources, Retail, Tourism)

Only one survey response per business is required and all answers will remain private and confidential.

The final Business Retention and Expansion Report will be a summary of aggregated survey data and individual survey results will remain anonymous.