Prince George, B.C. –  The City of Prince George is  ranked   25th  spot   in the  annual Entrepreneurial Communities Index  produced by the Canadian  Federation of Independent Business.

The rankings  reflect the best places  to start and grow a business in Canada.

The Prince George overall  ranking is unchanged from last year,  but  well ahead of  some other  B.C. communities  including Vancouver periphery 28th (30th), Kamloops 39th (46th), Nanaimo 42nd (39th),  Quesnel 64th (61st), and Fort St John 95th (69th),

“It is great to see BC’s cities recognized as good places to run a business, thanks in large measure to relatively strong economic growth “states Richard Truscott, CFIB  Vice President, BC and Alberta.

The annual study assesses which municipal areas have best enabled small businesses to start, grow, and prosper. The report looked  at the entrepreneurial environment in 121 of the most populous municipalities (roughly 20,000 people or more) across Canada, according to information drawn from published and custom tabulated Statistics Canada sources, as well as survey research conducted with CFIB members.

According to the report,  the best City in Canada to  start and grow a business is Collingwood Ontario.    The highest ranked cities in B.C.  were Kelowna and  Penticton which were ranked third and fourth respectively , unchanged from  last year’s ranking.

“It is important to also look more specifically at the policy rankings, since that is the one area where local governments have the most control.  It shows BC’s municipal governments still have a lot of work to do in terms of creating a better policy environment in areas like taxes and regulation,” concludes Truscott.   In that  column on the study’s ledger, Prince George  ranked  30th,  while  Kelowna sat at 48th, Quesnel at 54th,  Kamloops 73rd  and  Fort St. John  was in the 86th spot.   Camrose Alberta took the number one spot  in the  policy  rankings.