NDP recklessly charges ahead, putting businesses under

[Rwede]

Struggling Calgary business cries out to NDP — help, don't hurt


Many Calgary businesses — large, medium and small — have a united message for the NDP.

If you want to help, do it now. If you won’t, don’t do anything else to hurt us.

One big help would be a deferral of the carbon tax. It’s supposed to kick in on Jan. 1, just as the post-Christmas slowdown begins.

By that time, many more businesses could be closing their doors or wrestling banks for the keys. The smallest uptick in costs would trigger a further cascade of failures.

This city’s business community is in crisis, beset by lagging sales, rising expenses, vanishing customers, and longer timelines for payments. Thousands of jobs are at risk.

Snip

It’s a great spot with a friendly atmosphere. Last year Market 17 won an award for energy efficiency, thanks to the efforts of co-owners Alison Gilroy and Alan Yee, both devoted environmentalists.

But even they worry about the impact of the carbon tax. “It’s the timing right now,” Gilroy says. “If this was two years ago during the boom, it (the tax) would have gone down a lot easier.”

Yee put its more sharply: “You can be green — and we are — but it doesn’t bring in the bucks.”

Snip

Owner Ross Sisson bought the building, renovated it with energy efficiency as a priority, and moved in recently from his earlier location down the road.

It would be a bleak irony if the carbon tax hurt businesses like this — the very ones that don’t need it. They may pay less because of efficiency, but there will still be a cost.

Brookman claims the NDP simply isn’t connected with business. “Right now, I think business people don’t trust them because you never know what the next step is going to be. They’re making decisions on the fly without enough consultation or understanding.”

Snip

Bilous also said small business could get a carbon tax break.

“Through the carbon levy there is an adjustment fund that will be there to help not only in supporting low-income families, but also to support business and indigenous communities.”

“So there is some reprieve for small business. I recognize that many have very small margins. We need to ensure that they remain viable.”

That last part would have been right at the top of this column, if I hadn’t later received a government call saying carbon tax relief for business is still premature and undecided.

Which is why Calgarians need to keep pushing the government. The NDP needs to come up with a coherent support strategy for small business, now.

Full, sad story of NDP stupidity, here: http://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/ ... um=twitter

[maryjane48]

The feds are bringing in national carbon plan so this is really just bunch of biased garbage

[hobbyguy]

The carbon tax is a small thing. But I can understand that marginal businesses would find such a small thing to be a blow.

The questions: if your business is only viable when a boom is on, is that a good business plan? Did many entrepreneurs in Calgary make the mistake of assuming that oil prices would always be high (there's that assume thing)? Did those businesses have a contingency plan for what happens if oil prices did not stay high? (A failure to plan is a plan to fail.)

I have a sense that many in Alberta assumed that oil prices would always be high, and that oil and gas would always pay for everything, with boom times lasting forever. I also have a sense that many in Alberta are clinging to the hope that oil prices will rebound significantly. That is another assumption, and one that increasingly looks like a false one.

That sort of leads me to this general question: While I recognize that the Alberta NDP are floundering, would any brand of Alberta government (left, center, right, center right, whatever) be doing anything but flounder? The long standing PC/Reform bet that oil would always be high has proven a bad one. I don't see a quick fix to that lost bet.

[hobbyguy]

Further to that: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/alberta/why-albertas-economic-downturn-looks-different-this-time/article29652011/

"Alberta may never again be the supercharged turbo that has powered our national economy for more than a decade. In fact, this budget may be historic in the sense that it will forever provide a signpost of when fiscal realities in the province were fundamentally altered; when the high standard of living that Albertans have enjoyed the past few decades began to, if not decline, stagnate."

[Rwede]

Boy, did you ever miss the point of that article, HG.

The carbon tax is no "small thing." The ripple effect of adding the cost of this ridiculous, ideological blunder on every single thing that a business has to purchase is gigantic. Canadians rely on a freight system that has to cover great distances to bring products to businesses and consumers, and punitively taxing that system of logistics is outrageous.

It's obvious, HG, that your knowledge of business and how businesses survive on slim margins while providing gainful employment, is somewhere between slim and none. Long rants don't indicate knowledge, but rather a failed attempt to baffle with BS.

[Veovis]

Has the tax made any real difference in BC? No. Will a National on top of a provincial one make any difference in Alberta other than to cause an even greater economic downturn? No.

Are any of them good so far - no. IS the tax tax tax tax tax being supported by people simply because they think the right is evil....most certainly, do they care the results, no.

I see the same people only here post that employers are garbage if they make money and then turn around and imply that the ones that don't make enough to hand more fistfuls of cash over to failed tax plans are also garbage.

We get it, you hate the people that drive 80-90% of all jobs in Canada, small employers, but that is more of a you problem than anything. IT's a misguided hatred used to defend poor choices in the name of being able to be "holier than thou" on some issue no matter the real costs to real people.

[hobbyguy]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/the-insidious-truth-about-bcs-carbon-tax-it-works/article19512237/
Nuff said on that one, but Alberta's carbon tax isn't the same - yet. It will be in 2018.

I think that blaming anything about current business conditions in Calgary on a carbon tax is just hogwash.

Why? Because the carbon tax doesn't even kick in until 2017. And then it will be about 2/3 of what we pay in BC. Gee, is BC broke and running big fat deficits? (We might be if the real estate bubble bursts, but that's another topic...)https://www.osler.com/en/resources/regulations/2016/alberta-s-carbon-tax-bill-20-the-em-climate-le

I get it. Folks are upset because the PCs told them years that oil would always go up, and that they wouldn't have to pay for the government services they want, and they could have the highest teacher salaries in the country (and I think in North America), and...and...they could have it all forever and not have pay taxes like the rest of Canadians. The Alberta PCs set Alberta up with the highest per capita government expenditures in the country - waaay higher than BC, waaay higher than those socialists in Quebec. At the same time the Alberta PCs gave Albertans no sales tax, a flat lowest rate of income tax in the country. It was "party time", "black gold will pay for everything forever". And then they had "the Prime Minister of Alberta" telling them they would have pipelines everywhere and which way and the promised land was right there...just reach out and there it is!

I exaggerate a bit for effect. However, I can understand why Albertans are feeling a bit shell shocked. Reality has come up and bit them hard.

The reality is that unless oil hits like $75/bbl for an extended period, "party time" ain't coming back.

If I was running a business in Calgary that was predicated on "boom time" consumer spending, I would be shell shocked too. But the reality is that the carbon tax is not the "make or break". Even without it there were going to be businesses that were not going to make it. http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/the-hits-keep-coming-for-struggling-calgary-businesses When I look at this article, two things stand out: the property tax increase, and that these struggling businesses are toward the "luxury end" of the market. I also note that one of the businesses seems to indicate that an 8% drop in business is too much for them to cope with. To me, that indicates that the business plan did not have enough contingency built in.

This article also points out the real culprits: http://business.financialpost.com/news/economy/downtown-calgary-retail-businesses-rapidly-closing-as-layoffs-oil-prices-take-their-toll

And the one that is really biting: http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/calgary-business-owners-face-bleak-property-tax-bills

This article also points out that "discretionary" retail is highly vulnerable: http://www.660news.com/2016/05/27/economic-crunch-continues-to-claim-business-in-calgary/

"Still, he believes lower-price point restaurants can still profit in this economy because people still have to go out, when travelling for example, and will look for cheaper menus.

Hirsch adds it’s a similar, difficult story for retailers.

“Simply again because of the rising unemployment rate and fewer discretionary dollars to spend on discretionary items,” he explained. “Grocery stores and staples like that should be fine, but some of those other retailers may have a difficult time.”

You will never see me bashing small and medium businesses. I recognize that they are the heart of the "Main St." economy. In this case, they are caught in a tsumani of change. The carbon tax is the least of their worries.

[maryjane48]

Thats the truth hobby . The opposition is a idealogical one . Based on past party dominance in alberta. So far i think notley has atleast brought reality of the times to alberta is pro pipeline and has had death threats against her . Gotta be doing something right

[Gone_Fishin]

^^Who has the time to wade through a truckload of leftist garbage?

What matters is that Notley's Tax is going to affect all Albertans negatively, with increased costs and increased unemployment. The NDP zealots don't care that poor people will get kicked squarely in the groin, and that many small employers who offer jobs on small profit margins to people with lower incomes will be forced to close the doors. Layering a regressive carbon tax on top of a 20% income tax hike (and let's not forget Trudeau's huge CPP tax hike) is exponentially bad for the working people of alberta and their struggling employers. The NDP is terrible.

[Veovis]

^^Who has the time to wade through a truckload of leftist garbage?

What matters is that Notley's Tax is going to affect all Albertans negatively, with increased costs and increased unemployment. The NDP zealots don't care that poor people will get kicked squarely in the groin, and that many small employers who offer jobs on small profit margins to people with lower incomes will be forced to close the doors. Layering a regressive carbon tax on top of a 20% income tax hike (and let's not forget Trudeau's huge CPP tax hike) is exponentially bad for the working people of alberta and their struggling employers. The NDP is terrible.

I love the counter argument "well it hasn't gone into effect yet". And? I suppose that is a good point, it means there is still time to back off on very poor choices being made, they won't but I suppose the options are there to realize that the tax tax tax tax and more tax isn't going to actually help employment as it never has.

Sadly Alberta won't see a change in that attitude until the next election and they have plenty of people cheering for it, sadly a lot of those same people will be the ones hit worst by it as they are the ones often poor at math it seems.

[Rwede]

Hunter Harrison, a Tennessee-born railwayman, is the CEO of Canadian Pacific Railway. Shortly after Rachel Notley and her NDP destroyers were elected, Harrison generously volunteered to pay a carbon tax.


He said:

We’re a citizen here and we take the good and we have to help with the bad times and we’re willing to do our fair share.

If they ask us, or if they impose another per cent or two of fuel tax we’re not going to lay down and cry.


So that was Harrison being a real bigshot with other peoples' money — not only his shareholders' money, but all Albertans', too.

So how’s that working out for CP Rail?

Well, over the past year, share price is down 16 per cent, revenue is down 12 per cent, and they cut 2000 jobs.

But don’t you worry about Hunter. He personally earned $19.9 million last year.

And he still gets use of the company's million dollar private plane -- which, like his company's trains, runs on fossil fuels...

[hobbyguy]

But, as I posted earlier, the carbon tax is minor, it is not in effect yet, it has zero to do with business conditions in Alberta.

In point of fact the ONLY reason that Alberta has an NDP government? Because Alberta Conservatives are such massive foul-ups!

So get over it. The PCs totally messed up Alberta and there is no magic wand to cure 20+ years of Conservative malfeasance and abject incompetence coupled with corruption.

Time to move on, and move forward. Alberta is putting up with a neophyte NDP government because they had no other option. No, not my favorite government, but it is totally disingenuous to attack every thing they do, and every policy they bring forward without reasonable argument.

What I hear from the Cons is exactly what I hear from the BC NDP, no ideas and no idea and "the other guys are bananaheads". What that will get you is decades of NDP governments in Alberta.

[bob vernon]

This never would have happened with the Conservatives in charge.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2867455/alber ... a-scotias/

Rachel Notley, hands on hips, head thrown back, laughing hysterically.

[logicalview]

This never would have happened with the Conservatives in charge.
.

They wouldn't have put this stupid carbon tax in place just to screw over poor people, that's for sure. Why do the NDP hate poor people so much? That is the big question.

[hobbyguy]

You mean the ones the Alberta PCs created?