The Alberta Chamber of Commerce said discussion about separation is an important issue facing the province, and it’s leading to an increase of people saying it creates negative impacts to their business and is affecting the provincial economy.
The chamber released its survey results on Monday. In total, 594 people responded from across the province, with 74 per cent representing the private sector.
The survey showed 50 per cent feel Alberta separation is an important issue, and 30 per cent were most concerned with it.
Twenty-eight per cent said it’s impacting their business, up six per cent from last year. Meanwhile, 56 per cent said it’s impacting the provincial economy, up three per cent from last year.
The survey said nine in 10 respondents describe the impacts as negative, citing problems with planning uncertainty, recession concerns, reduced investment confidence and decisions to explore relocation out of the province.
“It’s ranked, so Alberta separation was number one, but close behind that was federal policies. I think those two are kind of linked together, in terms of what are the biggest concerns for Alberta businesses.” Alberta Chamber of Commerce president Shauna Feth said.
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She said businesses also consider what is having the most impact on their ability to make decisions around investments, diversification, and productivity inputs.
The concern doesn’t seem to be around the ideology of Alberta separating, Feth said.
“It is really about the uncertainty that level or that type of discourse that creates, when it comes down to me as a business owner trying to make that decision about whether to make that hire or whether to make that investment into a new piece of equipment.”
“Businesses in general don’t like uncertainty,” University of Alberta economy professor Chetan Dave said.
Dave said that businesses don’t do well when there are political issues that are not related to product maximization.
“It creates this aura of incompetence and uncertainty which makes ‘me’ pull back on ‘my’ investments, it makes ‘me’ think maybe ‘I’ should relocate to a more stable society.”
Dave said that he has seen some businesses put delays on big projects like pipelines, until conversations about Alberta separation is resolved.
Jeffrey Rath, legal counsel for Stay Free Alberta, called this survey nonsense.
“I just shook my head at what the Chamber of Commerce had to say, because I have yet to hear of a real business that would say, ‘Oh boy, I wish I could go somewhere, where I could be taxed and regulated more,’” Rath said.
Alberta’s jobs and economy minister Joseph Schow said in a statement, “the reality is that Alberta is seeing major investment and growth that is creating jobs and growing the economy faster than any other province in Canada.”
“The primary cause of investor uncertainty in Alberta over the last decade has been the destructive, anti-development policies of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau which saw half a trillion dollars’ worth of investment flee the province.”
He went on to say the province has made headway after years of advocacy and months of negotiations with the federal government, and the vast majority of their “anti-resource policies” have been reversed.
The province said it added nearly 42,000 full time jobs in January and is outpacing the year-over-year national employment growth.
The survey did show that people feel there is hope for Alberta’s future.
Riiiight… Companies scared their taxes will go down if Alberta separates.
If it wasn’t for Ottawa, we’d never run a deficit budget.