NS Business Leaders Have Tough Questions For Campaigning Politicians
HALIFAX—As Nova Scotia’s political leaders enter full-on campaign mode, the province’s business community has tough questions about how leaders will help them make it through the pandemic— and remain competitive on the other side.
Kent Roberts, the vice-president of policy with the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, says he needs to know how political leaders will protect small- and medium-sized businesses as federal Covid-19 financial support dries up.
He says the federal government appears to be painting the country’s economic recovery “with a broad brush” that doesn’t consider the stricter lockdown and slower recovery in Nova Scotia.
Because of that, Nova Scotia businesses are scared wage and rent subsidies will be taken from them too early. With that in mind, Roberts wants Nova Scotia’s political leaders to pledge to step in and support small businesses if that happens.
Roberts says the business community is also frustrated by the “uncertainty and the instability” of the province’s economic recovery.
“There’s a reopening plan, but we still don’t really have a recovery plan,” Roberts says. He says the province doesn’t appear to have “a clear economic direction” and wants campaigns to address how they will fix that.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, meanwhile, is calling on Nova Scotia’s political leaders to commit to a “do no harm” principle towards small- and medium-sized businesses.
The CFIB’s Louis-Philippe Gauthier says that means “making sure that the regulations are [carefully] considered and that maybe additional costs for now just be set aside.”
Gauthier and Roberts both argue the economic recovery has been wildly different depending on the business you’re in. They say they will be looking at how each political party plans to specifically help the struggling tourism and hospitality sector.
However, Nova Scotia businesses are concerned not just with recovering from Covid-19, but by how well they’ll be able to compete as things return to normal.
Part of that will be business owners’ ability to find enough skilled labour.
Roberts says finding enough people to work for them is becoming “a huge issue” for Nova Scotia businesses.
“There’s a lack of workers,” he explains. “People left the workforce during the pandemic and even businesses that are now reopening are really struggling to find people to come back to work.”
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Gauthier argues labour shortages are just one small part of what’s hampering competitiveness for Nova Scotia’s businesses.
He says the province’s employers have for years been paying workers compensation fees that are much higher than the national average. Those years of overpayment, he argues, are a major economic drain on the province and a hardship for businesses.
“With the rate that businesses are paying across Nova Scotia, it is a problem. And it’s been a problem for over a decade at this point,” he says. “It would be quite an unfortunate reality if we found ourselves at the end of the term of the next government and this hasn’t been addressed.”
The CFIB is also demanding Nova Scotia’s political parties spell out exactly how they plan to address minimum wage changes in the province.
Businesses have been continually frustrated not by the minimum wage going up, but by what can feel like arbitrary calculations.
One of the hardest things for businesses to deal with is uncertainty, he says, and pegging minimum wage increases to something like the Consumer Price Index would be a great way to remove uncertainty for business owners.
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Roberts, meanwhile, wants to hear how political parties plan to address diversity, mental health, and affordable housing in the province.
“If we’re going to attract people here and want families to grow and the economy to grow, we just don’t have the housing to put them in or housing that people can afford,” he says.