St. Albert businesses grill politicians on COVID-19 plans

Businesses struggling in the face of COVID-19 got a chance to ask questions to several of St. Albert's elected representatives on a virtual roundtable discussion. 

The idea was to give the local business community and residents a platform to find out more around the province's relaunch strategy, and hear about what steps need to be taken to allow for a smooth transition, according to Jennifer McCurdy, president and CEO of the St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce, which hosted the event.

There were around 60 people on the call Monday.

The Q&A session covered business-related questions including economic recovery plans for St. Albert, rent subsidies, regional co-ordination, deficit budgets and what to do about businesses falling through the cracks of COVID-19 supports. The need for stimulus to the energy sector came up, as did the availability of personal protective equipment for businesses preparing to reopen. 

One of the last questions was around how each level of government plans on dealing with debt accumulated from the pandemic. 

Canada has been left more vulnerable with less capacity to respond to accumulated debt due to fiscal "irresponsibilities we saw from the federal government spending during the good times," Cooper said, calling current conditions "unsustainable."

Meanwhile, the province is facing a $20-billion hole in the budget that wasn't there three months ago, Nally said. Tough questions will need to be answered over the next few months. 

Left with few options, St. Albert will be writing a deficit somewhere between $4.6 to $7 million, Heron said. 

"A million dollars in expenses in St. Albert is worth about a one-per-cent tax increase. If we had to recover that deficit in 2021, I'd have to raise taxes (by) seven per cent. That's not what we want to do," she said. 

Instead, the city will be working with other levels of government to secure a larger line of credit, which would be paid back with multi-year tax increases. Liquidating some of the city's assets is another possibility, Heron said.

St. Albert MP Michael Cooper said the federal government's rollout of relief programs was a good start, but the money isn't being allocated fast enough. Eligibility criteria, particularly the payroll test for the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) is still shutting out small businesses in need. 

"The government, unfortunately, doesn't seem to be making adjustments in respect to this vital program, which for many small businesses could make the difference between staying afloat or closing in terms of desperate need for liquidity," Cooper said. 

Morinville-St. Albert MLA Dale Nally said stimulus money and liquidity for the oil and gas industry is well overdue. Bailing out the province's largest industry would create "tremendous benefits" for employees, small and medium-sized businesses in the province, he said.

"The feds told us very clearly that we were hours or even days (away) in terms of how fast they were to get their liquidity for that industry. It's now been over a month, and we're still waiting," Nally said. "But the defense team is too preoccupied with gun control to focus on supporting Alberta's biggest industry and I think that was extremely disappointing."

St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron said the city was "well prepared" to handle COVID-19, and remains hopeful some local businesses will be able to meet Premier Jason Kenney's targeted reopening dates, given the lower case numbers recorded in northern Alberta. 

In response to the pandemic, the city shut down its facilities, reduced transit services and offered free transit. The municipality also allowed for automatic blanket property and education tax deferrals for businesses and residents. 

"All of this has led to severe deficits for the City of St. Albert. While the federal and provincial governments can offer that kind of financial support, that's very difficult for a municipality, because legislatively we're not allowed to carry a deficit," Heron said. 

One of the first questions was whether there was any consideration around extending the time for payment of tax deferrals, especially for small businesses hit hard financially because of government-mandated closures.  

"There's always that option, council can re-evaluate these decisions. So September 30, is our deferral deadline. There is a huge worry in municipal local government ... that there will be defaults, and we don't want to see people defaulting," Heron said.

Sixty per cent of the city's property taxpayers have signed up for monthly payments over 12 months instead of paying a lump sum, she said. 

"I highly recommend people sign up for monthly, because that will spread out your property taxes." 

The province's own deferral program was set up to allow people to make payments over 12 months, and if another deferral is needed, the government could delay it later, Nally said. 

There are "a lot of issues" with the federal government's commercial rent relief program, Cooper said, as his office has heard from a number of tenants whose landlords "don't seem particularly interested in taking up assistance." He added the federal Department of Finance hasn't given him clarity as to when the program will actually be up and running.

Having a sliding scale instead of the 70-per-cent drop in revenue requirement for rent relief would have caught some businesses falling through the cracks, Nally said. The program could have also been framed to give small businesses more authority.  

"I would prefer to put the money in the hands of small businesses to empower them more. I wish the feds had collaborated more on the program, and they surely could have made it better."

In discussions with the province, Heron said there has been a lot of indication for stimulus packages for municipalities, and the city has been asked to submit a few "shovel-ready" projects for approval, namely servicing under Ray Gibbon Drive. 

"Most of this could be recovered by the developers in the long run, but if we could get the money to push that forward ... servicing under Ray Gibbon Drive will not only (service) the Range Road 260 area structure plan, it would also service Lakeview Business District. So 350 jobs created with one construction project," Heron said. 

"That's St. Albert's big push, is to get that done."  

The federal government is working to expedite the approval of $20 billion of resource projects, including the $1.5-billion NOVA Gas transmission expansion project, Cooper said. The 344-kilometre natural gas pipeline would funnel natural gas from the Grande Prairie area south to the Calgary area. 

"When we're talking about these projects, these are major capital projects with assets that might last decades, and so a short-term pandemic doesn't change the long-term viability of these projects," Cooper said.

After talking with the Minister of Natural Resources, Nally said he was left with the impression to "not hold his breath" on approval for that project.

"The one bright light in the energy industry right now is the price of natural gas has actually not collapsed," he said. "Natural gas is the one commodity that is actually providing the energy industry with some liquidity. Believe me, a year ago, we never thought we'd say that."