Small business owners in Halifax are looking to the municipal government for some additional financial support — citing impacts from ongoing construction throughout the city as a contributing factor in recently lost revenue.
Heather Rankin, owner of the Obladee wine bar in downtown Halifax, said she acknowledges that construction is a viable component of Halifax’s growth. Despite this, she said the city “needs to do a better job” at minimizing its impact on small businesses.
“We have been living with downtown construction for the last 14 years,” she said in a statement to Global News, adding that there is currently no support available to alleviate the challenges her bar has faced due to the surrounding developments.
“We are now dealing with the redevelopment of our own building, and the ongoing impacts on our business are extreme.”
On Thursday, an open letter from The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) was addressed to mayors nationwide ahead of an upcoming Federation of Canadian Municipalities meeting in Calgary this weekend.
In the letter, the federation requested that municipal governments provide “construction mitigation” to businesses impacted by development projects.
“CFIB data indicates the problem is getting worse as a startling 72 per cent of small businesses across Canada report they have been impacted by disruptions from local construction projects over the last five years,” read the non-profit organization’s letter, noting some reports indicate businesses have undergone an expenditure of $53,000 due to public construction projects throughout this period.
“Often, these disruptions result in significantly decreased sales.”
The CFIB also estimated that Canadian businesses lost 22 per cent of revenues in the last five years due to public construction projects.
“If direct compensation is not feasible, municipalities should consider offering tax holidays,” the report continued, advocating for municipal governments to temporarily waive property taxes for impacted businesses as an example.
“Property taxes can be particularly harmful to small businesses in times of lower sales because they are profit insensitive.”
Duncan Robertson, a senior policy analyst with CFIB in Nova Scotia, said Halifax could be a leader in Canada by providing direct financial support to businesses — but they will require a “buy-in” from the provincial government to be given that authority.
“You lose parking. If you’re a restaurant and your patio is located next to construction, well then, it’s going to fill that patio so there are impacts that are showing,” he said.
He said projects like the ongoing construction on Cogswell Street have resulted in a heavy financial impact on small businesses.
“It’s been a difficult five years, before the pandemic and after the pandemic. In the current economic relationship, a lot of small businesses are facing really thin profit margins,” Robertson said.
Robertson noted that in Feb. 2020, the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) made a request to Nova Scotia’s provincial government to request the amendment of the municipality’s charter to permit the creation of a fund to mitigate the negative impact construction is having on businesses.
In February 2024, the CFIB penned another letter, this time to the province, asking that the necessary authority be provided to create a construction mitigation policy.
In a statement provided to Global News on Friday afternoon, a spokesperson for Nova Scotia’s provincial government said the province is not considering amending the HRM Charter to allow the municipality to establish a construction mitigation fund.
“As we value the CFIB’s work to advocate on behalf of small and medium-sized businesses, we will keep this request in mind as we consider future opportunities to modernize municipal legislation,” the statement read.
Halifax Coun. Waye Mason, who represents the city’s downtown area, says the municipality doesn’t have the money or power to help shopkeepers — at the moment.
“Provincial legislation says we cannot give money to businesses, so even if we wanted to, that would be legally impossible,” he said while speaking with Global News on Friday.
“Our budget is so small and our mandate around supporting businesses directly is so minimal.”
Mason said the municipality brought in a construction mitigation plan once development began ramping out throughout Halifax. Despite this, he said more still needs to be done to help small businesses maintain customers while construction is underway.
“It can be very disruptive, for years, for small businesses,” he said.
Despite the current frustration, Mason said there is a “clear upside” for business owners in the long term once some of these larger developments are completed, as it will permit a larger influx of customers into areas where these shops and restaurants are located.
“There is no sign the pace of construction is going to slow down, which means that we’ve got to think, again, about finding better supports for small business,” he said.
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