It’s a case of déjˆ vu for people like Murray Cameron, a business owner in southwestern Manitoba.
Five years ago, he and other merchants in Melita were bracing for a downturn in the local economy because of a wet spring that made it difficult for many farmers to get their crops planted.
Today, Cameron and fellow merchants are again confronting some challenging times, partly as a consequence of the BSE situation and partly because of the number of area producers who were cut from the pregnant mare’s urine industry in the past year.
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“I think most businesses have been able to struggle through it,” said Cameron, president of Melita’s chamber of commerce.
“We’ve had some closures, but we’ve also had some new businesses opening up.”
Melita’s town council led an appeal last week for some sort of financial relief from the provincial and federal governments for small town businesses.
The council raised the issue during the annual convention of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities in Winnipeg.
Melita mayor Ron Nestibo said the resolution his council put forward draws attention to an issue he hears often when talking with other rural community leaders in Manitoba. He would like the province and Ottawa to consider interest-free loans to help small town businesses.
“It was a resolution put forward just to make it known that the small businessman may need help too. We’re all in this together. I’m sure we were speaking on behalf of all the small towns. That’s the way we put it across. We were speaking on behalf of all the small communities, not singling out anyone.”
Cameron said local businesses would welcome some form of relief from government, but he said the priority remains having government lobby to reopen the border to exports of live cattle to the United States and help struggling livestock producers. The need for more slaughter capacity in Canada should also be addressed, he said.
“Maybe if they can address that, it could be more important than handing money out.”
Ron Bell, who was elected the new AMM president during the convention, said the difficulties rural communities are encountering because of BSE have been compounded by a difficult growing season for crops and the delayed harvest.
“The impact of BSE is significant to small town businesses,” Bell said. “It’s starting to hit, for sure.”
The resolution concerning relief for small businesses was passed at the AMM convention and will go to a committee to determine how best to act on it.
