Flooring is the kind of businesses that benefits from space.
While customers at JD Flooring come in to its northeast Calgary office eager to paw through samples of carpets, tile, vinyl and more, the cost of storing and showcasing that product is quickly climbing, as commercial rents rise city-wide.
“It’s always changed every year by 10 per cent,” said Jagraj Singh Sohi, who started JD Flooring just over two years ago. “And the property tax and condo fees have gone up too. Even the garbage fee… They’ve gone up too.”
He stood alongside two other business owners Friday at an Alberta NDP news conference.
Opposition small business critic Gurinder Brar is calling on the Alberta government to step in on upcoming pandemic relief payments to the federal government, before the deadline of Dec. 31.
Brar’s ask: “To give them a low-interest rate loan of at least $40,000 to the federal government and that will forgive them $20,000.
“It will save $2 billion to small businesses from the federal program if this gets covered,” he said.
Studio B Fitness in Edmonton was one of more than 125,000 Alberta businesses that opted in for the interest-free loans of up to $60,000.
The money was provided by the Canada Emergency Business Account Program (CEBA). Repayments were delayed by a year, but after years of struggling to rebuild, this year is, for some, the final push towards closure.
“We were getting to the point where we were starting to break even again,” said co-owner Megan Clark. “But the size of the debt that we accumulated and the size of the payments that the government was wanting from us, (it) just wasn’t possible with what we were doing.”
The Calgary Chamber of Commerce estimated about half of local businesses still haven’t seen a return to pre-pandemic revenue. They’ve faced a myriad of challenges: staffing shortages, inflation, insurance hikes and even — according to Sohi — a doubling of shipping costs.
“It’s very hard to survive in this business in the future, if there’s no loan that comes from the federal or provincial government to small businesses to support us.”
As part of a statement to Global News, the Alberta’s ministry of jobs, economy and trade said the province is working with business and industry to “address these challenges and ensure the province’s business climate supports growth now and in the future.”
“This includes taking quick and effective actions to support Alberta businesses through fuel tax relief, lower business taxes and electricity rebates.
“As the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) program is a federally administered program, we also encourage businesses to contact the CEBA call centre to discuss their specific circumstances and identify available options.”
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