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Survey Snippet 1: Contractor challenges

In our first Groundwater Professionals Survey, we asked contractors which challenges stand out over the next three years?

Each challenge was rated as not overly important, fairly important or very important.

Rated as very important in order of weight were following:

• Overall health of the Canadian ground water industry (65%)
• Ability to attract and retain employees (62%) – we’ll study this challenge in depth in 2021
• Cost of insurance (53%)
• Cost of fuel (45%)
• Ability to maintain or improve the productivity of my operation (42%)
• Cost of machinery (40%)
• Access to financing (37%)
• Ability to attract buyers for my business (25%)

Several challenges not included as choices in the survey were pointed out by participants: succession planning for retirement, flawed groundwater legislation, the ability to charge a fair price for services without having a bidding war with other contractors that do not realize they are giving their work away, capitalizing on having perceived water quality advantage over city tap water, raising awareness of the need for industry improvement and drilling restrictions in water-short areas.

The Groundwater Professionals Survey was co-sponsored with the Canadian National Ground Water Association and the Ontario Ground Water Association.

Read a summary of the survey results.