Lindsay Seewalt’s April 20 story Olive ‘R Twist closing doors after a decade included these lines or words to the effect; “At its height, the restaurant employed 25 full and part time staff, now pared to seven with the owners working unrealistic hours … when adding increasing taxes, minimum wage (increases) and food costs, the owners decided to move on.”
Not withstanding the downturn in the oil business, from which entrepreneurial Albertans always recover, the election of the NDP has continued the economic destruction of Alberta with its carbon, liquor and business tax increases, minimum wage increases, and other punitive and destructive socialist policies all of which our premier tells us with a straight face “will help the middle class?” She lies with no compunction!
Since the collapse of oil prices in 2014 and the NDP election, some 5,865 businesses have closed, in 2015 another 6,680 closed the doors and in 2016, an additional 7,214 businesses have joined the extinct species list for a total of almost 20,000. These were all small and mid sized operations including retail stores, restaurants and small oil companies with more than 40,000 jobs lost in the oil and gas industry alone, while across Canada job losses related to the energy industry approximate close to 200,000 and this isn’t finished yet!
Empty retail space in Calgary alone is down more than 50 per cent, while about 30 per cent of corporate office space is vacant. In corporate Calgary three years ago, one could not find a parking place, now the streets are almost empty. In Alberta restaurants alone, customer traffic through the doors is down some 20 per cent, revenue for those still in business is down about 30 per cent and unless a restaurant (or any business) can sustain a profit margin of at least 20 per cent, it will fold like a camp chair!
Canadian government energy policies in concert with the NDP have insidiously driven business out of Alberta with more expected. In recent weeks, several oil companies, some major corporate giants, have pulled up stakes and left Alberta taking with them billions of dollars of investment, or have sold assets to other oil companies. These include Royal Dutch Shell, Conoco Phillips, Statoil of Norway, as well as smaller operations like Apache, Devon Energy and ECG Resources. We can expect many, many more!
Restaurants like Olive ‘R Twist are being forced to close as a direct result of the Notley Government’s unfriendly business policies. This government could have and should have held a moratorium on any business killing programs until oil prices had stabilized, but as with every socialist government the world over, common sense is not that common.
L. (Tex) Leugner
