Looking up the Chilkat Peninsula toward Haines and the mouth of the Chilkat River. (Berett Wilber)


While Haines residents may be used to turning to social media to discuss the local economy, there’s a new outlet online for those same thoughts: a survey from the Haines Economic Development Corporation.



The Haines Economic Development Corporation is looking for answers. And with a survey they recently posted online, they’re hoping Haines community members will be able to provide them.

The goal of the survey is to get a snapshot of the community’s economic health. It’s part of the group’s larger project to craft a strategic plan for development in Haines, with the help of consulting firm McDowell Group.

Margaret Friedenauer is the corporation’s executive director.

“I see people talking about us not needing more year-round jobs, not needing more industry. I see people saying we need school enrollment to increase, we need more resource extraction. But no one has the data to help inform those statements. We need that data to get a clear picture of what the economic health is of Haines. And then we need to plot a chart forward.”

The survey is anonymous, and takes about ten minutes. While a statistically random telephone survey was conducted on the same topic earlier this month, that’s not the point of this survey, Friedenauer says.

“This survey that people can take online is really looking to find areas of consensus. What benchmarks are we looking for? What is success going to look like, to say yes, we’re growing the economy.”

HEDC has set it up to get as much feedback as possible from community members.

 “It’s not restrictive,” she says. “Technically, you could take it twice, though we’re asking people to only take it once. But it’s not restrictive, so everyone in a household could take it. It’s not blocked if you go to the school or the library to take the survey.”

The survey will be open until April 30th. After that, McDowell will release their study to establish a baseline for Haines’ economy. Then, they’ll work with HEDC and individuals to recommend the best ways to spend time and energy to improve the community’s footing on development.