Atlantic Canadian downtowns at a ‘critical crossroad’, study suggests

Art gallery owner Nausika Breau is moving her business out of downtown due to security issues.

Apple Art has been located on a second floor on Moncton, N.B.’s St. George Street for five and a half years.

Breau says things have changed in the past few years, with people frequently coming in demanding to use the bathroom, sometimes acting erratic.

She said an incident with one woman in particular is the main reason for her business’s move.

“She came into the gallery and I asked her to leave and she attacked me. She punched me in the face,” Breau said.

“The month after we got robbed.”

Security issues like that are just one of the problems downtowns across Atlantic Canada are facing, according to a new study from Downtowns Atlantic Canada Inc.

The study shows that downtowns across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. are at a “critical crossroad” as they deal with issues such as a lack of staffing and decreased foot traffic due to the prevalence of remote work.

“All of these are indeed challenges, but there’s one that’s jumped to the top of the list … the repayment of the Canada Emergency Business Account,” Ken Kelly, the executive director of Downtowns Atlantic Canada Inc., said on Wednesday.

The CEBA is a federal program, first rolled out in April 2020, that provided small businesses with loans of up to $60,000.

In most cases, the loans need to be paid in full by Jan. 18, 2024.

“We would very much appreciate a delay in the repayment deadline,” Kelly said, adding that businesses would like to see the deadline extended until the end of 2024.

Moncton’s downtown has recovered “fairly well” amid the pandemic, according to Downtown Moncton Centre-ville Inc. executive director Patrick Richard.

He said the construction of the Avenir Centre, an events centre located on Main Street, helped mitigate some of the effects of the prevalence of remote work.

“What we lost from people working from home we made up with events from the Avenir Centre,” he said on Wednesday.

“So the Wildcat games, the different shows, the hotels have benefitted, the restaurants have been able to bounce back because of that…not fully but it definitely helps,” Richard said.

He said the security concerns were still a major concern for business owners and said he was optimistic the recently opened RCMP satellite office on Main Street could have an impact.