Cheers!
City council has once again green-lighted temporary patios and retail pop-ups to help businesses through the pandemic.
Council made two important improvements to the program design this year. First, the city has kicked off the program well ahead of last year’s June launch.
Secondly, alcohol sales will be permitted. They were banned last year due to a perceived concern about how neighbouring businesses would react.
The city is over a month ahead making the move this time around. Assuming the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission gives its blessing, that extra month of revenue in an already short summer season could make all the difference in the world for these long-suffering entrepreneurs.
Alcohol sales have good margins, with the added bonus of enticing sunseekers who simply want to enjoy their favourite libation in any place other than their home.
Our local businesses are doing everything they can to survive. Please, pop in and help them out.
Follow the money
The money is about to begin gushing from federal government coffers. The Liberal government's 2021 budget is a plan to spend their way to prosperity. Where that will take our debt-riddled economy is anyone’s guess. Optimists believe it is just the jump-start it needs while others are not convinced the spending has been targeted well enough to achieve that.
Debt has become a nebulous word. It no longer fits in our lexicon. Many of us are more likely to believe in the leprechaun and his hidden pot of gold more than some media-soaked warnings of impending financial doom.
Our prime minister is betting most of us are optimists. Billions for childcare, housing, environmental initiatives, seniors, Indigenous communities, innovation and venture capital. It’s hard to think of a group not showered with money in Monday’s federal budget.
On their own, each has merit. Combined, however, the spending will catapult our nation’s debt to more than $1.2 trillion this fiscal year. And it won’t stop growing as far as the budget projections take us. The numbers are numbing and incomprehensible.
What is missing, as pointed out by our federal Conservative members of Parliament, is a plan to reconcile government largesse. Both Dane Lloyd, MP for Sturgeon River-Parkland, and Michael Cooper, MP for St. Albert-Edmonton, are sounding the alarm over the Trudeau government’s lack of fiscal prudency.
Record spending was absolutely necessary during the pandemic to provide a lifeline to businesses and individuals. We are, however, in the final chapter of this historic event, yet the Trudeau Liberals are committing Canadians to over $100 billion in new spending over the next three years.
A cynic would say we are being bought with our own money. After all, the smell of an election is in the wind and governments have used this tried-and-true tactic forever.
So, "Top O’ the Morning to Ya - Lucky Charms for everyone." We’ll see you at the polls this fall.
