Flooded-out small business owners in Peace River, Alta. wonder why they’re being cast adrift from federal compensation programs handed out to their counterparts in Manitoba’s Red River Valley.
The doors of Peace River’s main shopping centre and town meeting place, Riverdrive Mall, will be closed for good if federal or provincial governments don’t kick in support, said Bob Lefebvre, one of 11 local shareholders.
It would be a huge loss to the town, he said.
“It wasn’t a big mall, but it was sort of a meeting place for the community.
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federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
“In the winter, people would come here to shop and could just run across to the other stores.”
The federal and provincial governments both say their hands are tied.
David Neville, an Ottawa spokesperson for Emergency Preparedness Canada, said Peace River residents are eligible for assistance under the federal government’s Disaster Financial Assistance arrangements.
Federal assistance kicks in when eligible provincial spending on the disaster exceeds $1 for every person living in Alberta, he said, and then it rises on a sliding scale.
“Certain businesses don’t meet the definition of a small business and are not eligible,” he said. Partnerships or businesses that are not the owner’s main source of income are not eligible.
Compensation outside these criteria fall under separately arranged agreements, he said, such as Manitoba’s Restart program.
But an official with Alberta’s disaster relief program said the federal government refuses to apply the assistance properly.
Ron Wolsey, executive director of the disaster services branch of Alberta Transportation, said there is a provision in the act that suggests criteria for compensation can be waived if the disaster threatens the economic viability of the community.
“We’re not just talking about one business here,” Wolsey said.
“The entire downtown core was devastated and we feel they need special consideration.”
Only a few small businesses in the Riverdrive Mall are classified as small businesses under the criteria, he said.
“The problem is all the big companies are eligible and the small mom-and-pop hairdressing shops are not.”
Wolsey said he made the request, but the federal department refused on the grounds that the province is able to cover the costs itself.
“That’s not the issue at all,” he said. “The provisions say nothing about whether or not the province is able to pay.”
Back in Manitoba where residents are cleaning up from the worst flood in a century, two weeks ago the federal government’s western economic diversification department announced a second level of disaster relief funding. The $25 million Restart program will put up to $5,000 cash in the hands of farmers and small business owners in a matter of days.
The program covers costs to repair or replace buildings, cleanup costs, costs for re-establishing a business, evacuation or temporary relocation costs and business costs incurred during interruption or evacuation.
Orville Buffie, assistant deputy minister for Western Economic Diversification in Manitoba, said the magnitude and level of devastation is what prompted the Manitoba and federal governments to form the Restart program.
“There are 5,000 small businesses affected,” he said. “The magnitude is much greater here.”
Bob Lefebvre, in Peace River, doesn’t argue the overall damage in Manitoba is greater, but said he’s hoping some compensation will materialize and save the mall.
“I’m 63 and not about to start over again,” said Lefebvre. “If there’s no money, there’s no mall.”
