Businesses worried about ‘uncertainty’ of dropping oil: Chamber of Commerce CEO
Posted Dec 11, 2014 4:32 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
As the price of a barrel of oil continues to drop, the CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce says there’s already belt-tightening going on among businesses.
Adam Legge said Thursday while there’s optimism the industry will get through the phase, the reality is budgets are being trimmed and plans are being revised.
“The biggest concern is nobody knows how long this is going to go or how deep it’s going to fall,” he said.
“People just aren’t sure whether this is a six-month thing, is this a 12-month thing or is this a 30-day thing, so it’s just the uncertainty.”
Legge said businesses should look at managing expenses and other adjustments as they obviously don’t want to see job cuts.
“Do what you can to keep the doors open, look for different streams of revenue, it’s not like the taps are completely shutting off, but people are slowing their spending,” he said.
Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi said it’s critical not to set the success of the community as solely on the price of oil, as Calgary is still one of the top places in the world to live and work.
He added the City has ways to deal with the decrease, by stretching out projects in case migration to the city slows, but he said the bigger issue will be with the provincial government.
“If it’s true that there’s a $6 billion hole in the provincial budget, well the education budget if memory serves is only $7.5 billion, so this is a really, really big deal,” he said, adding schools aren’t being built for people who are going to be moving to Calgary, but for those who are already here.
“The last time around, I think the last minute cuts to post-secondary education at a time of economic slowdown where people might get laid off and want to go back to school were incredibly short-sighted, so I’m hoping that the province and the new premier will be more thoughtful than that,” he said.
On the positive side, Nenshi said compared to any other jurisdiction, both the city and the province is in good financial shape.
