BONNYVILLE – Local and regional leaders discussed pressing issues for area business owners caused by the coronavirus.
Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs, Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul MLA David Hanson, Town of Bonnyville Mayor Gene Sobolewski, and MD of Bonnyville Reeve Greg Sawchuk participated in a video meeting organized by the Bonnyville and District Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, April 15.
Along with the government officials, roughly 40 people participated in the call to ask questions and share their concerns.
Supporting local business was a main point of discussion, and how residents can be encouraged to turn to the shops in their backyard instead of online.
“If one good thing comes out of this, I’m hoping we see some compassion for our fellow man and businesses. That we do get out there and those that are able to support those folks, especially some of the businesses who have been closed,” noted Sawchuk. “Through no fault of their own, their revenues and employees have gone from working to zero. That’s going to be tough on those folks and if we can get out there and help them at all, that’s going to be great.”
Sobolewski agreed, stressing, “in order to be able to support, we need revenue coming in.”
“We’re going to need some stimulus funding our oil patch,” he continued. “We’re going to need to put welders back to work, we’ve got to get pipelines in the ground, and we can be building pipelines… In order to do that, we need significant infrastructure stimulus both from the federal and provincial governments because that’s going to put money in pockets so we can start supporting local.”
There was no doubt that coronavirus has put a strain on an already struggling local economy. Whether or not some companies will still be here once restrictions begin to be lifted is up in the air.
“There’s a number of businesses that aren’t even sure if they can actually gear up even with the issue of funding from the federal government and some from the provincial,” Sobolewski stated. “It’s going to be a scary proposition to actually get things going and I think, from the town’s perspective, there’s going to be a major lifeline on two fronts: locally and regionally.”
With the finer details for support programs changing daily on the federal level, which businesses qualify varies.
For Stubbs, this is why the Conservative party is working at “identifying gaps and issues where businesses and employees aren’t qualifying. It’s why I do really encourage people to continue to contact our office when there are companies, individuals or organizations that are excluded because that will help us continue to push the Liberals to correct some of the gaps and shortcomings in their programs.”
Serina Parsons, executive director of the Bonnyville chamber, said retailers have reached out to the chamber about the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) saying they’re struggling to man their storefronts.
“That CERB is more than they were making on a regular basis working minimum wage. Now, they’re looking at reopening or trying to get people in with the wage subsidy, and people aren’t really wanting to return.”
Stubbs noted this was something raised early-on when discussions began about the CERB and steps are being taken to address this.
“We’re trying to advocate for some changes to ensure that people can still work and also be able to have some support as well, but this is an issue that we’re going to have to address because I’ve heard this concern raised numerous times,” she detailed.
With the pandemic happening locally and across the country, Hanson stressed “we’re all in this together.”
“We have to make sure that our oil companies, contractors, supplies, and everybody that adds onto that is alive and well for when we get into recovery. Hopefully, looking at our curve here in the province and nationally, we may be able to see some lifting of restrictions in a couple of weeks but that’s not guaranteed. It’s a tough position to be in. All I can offer is that your provincial government is 100 per cent behind our local businesses and trying to do our best to make sure everybody gets by," said Hanson.
