Thornhill regional district director Ted Ramsey wasn’t surprised by the results of a business survey conducted by the accounting and consultancy firm MNP and the Terrace and District Chamber of Commerce which indicated a majority of local businesses wanted Terrace and Thornhill to join.
“I didn’t see anything that stunned me. There was no revelation there,” said Ramsey who attended a Nov. 17 breakfast at which the survey of business opinions and attitudes was released.
“Some of their numbers were skewed badly when you look at the number of people they put the survey out to, the number who responded and the number in Thornhill.”
The survey indicated that 200 businesspeople responded to the survey and of that number, 62 per cent supported the melding of the two, 19 per cent preferred the status quo, 12 per cent believed Thornhill should shift from being an electoral area within the Kitimat-Stikine regional district and become its own municipality, and seven per cent didn’t know which governance option they would support or provided no response.
The main question asked was “From a business perspective, which of the following governance options do you generally support the most?”
A survey company contacted 1,333 businesses, spoke with 457 and had 200 surveys completed in September.
Of the 200, 107 were chamber members.
“Their numbers were nowhere realistic. I’m not sure how they got to that,” said Ramsey, adding that survey results can be made out to show whatever the people doing the survey want.
“I do not understand why the chamber thinks something evil is going to happen if Thornhill incorporates,” he said, adding he’s asked chamber members, who haven’t come up with a logical answer for him.
Deciding on whether to incorporate or not is a democratic process and has nothing to do with the chamber, added Ramsey who himself favours incorporation of Thornhill.
“If there’s an opportunity, businesses will be there,” he said, adding he’s been in small business his whole life.
