In the wake of multiple business closing, and the impacts to be felt on the municipal budget, Randy Hope says “it is what it is”.
“We’ve been trying to bring budgets in at inflation, but we can’t control the federal and provincial governments and what they do. They’re saying that there’s changes to the business tax to help alleviate some of the pressure, but I haven’t seen those changes yet”, Hope says.
According to Hope, there’s only so much the municipality can do to help the businesses.
“The business community is trying to communicate to the provincial government about the potential impacts [the increase in minimum wage] might have”, says Hope.
As of January 1st the minimum wage goes up to $14/hr.