CENTRE WELLINGTON – Elora Festival is cancelled. Fergus Scottish Festival is cancelled. Riverfest Elora is to be announced but seems unlikely to go forward. A fruitful summer of festivals with lots of spending in Centre Wellington is another victim of the pandemic.
That’s not counting the impact on the local culture.
David Radley, Fergus Scottish Festival president, said he is disappointed the festival’s 75th anniversary celebration is postponed until 2021.
“When it first started, of course we were very optimistic that this whole thing would run its course,” Radley said, referring to the early days of the pandemic.
Radley explained this period is when the acts, guests, athletes and others involved in the festival begin to be booked and get their airline tickets. When the situation looked worse, a hard decision had to be made.
“So everybody was getting in touch with us saying ‘what’s going on?’” Raldey said. “It was just at that time at the cusp where we weren’t sure what to do, so it was very difficult at the time.”
According to Radley, the Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games are known worldwide and bring in around 22,000 visitors. He couldn’t provide a precise number but knew the overall economic impact of the festival is in the multimillion-dollar range.
“It’s a big disruption obviously, the local businesses thrive through that time period,” Radley said, noting that the bars and pubs do particularly well. “Downtown we always put music in all the pubs and we have a downtown parade.”
There’s more disappointment in Elora for Peter Barr, Elora Festival board president. Barr said this year’s Elora Festival had an incredible lineup planned that mixed contemporary artists with the Elora Singers.
“We’re trying to find ways to work them into our winter season or next year’s festival,” Barr said. “The biggest disappointment is that the program that in my mind was absolutely brilliant, is not going to come together the way we wanted it to.”
Barr, as a partner at consulting firm Deloitte Canada, explained that economic impact is measured in three ways: direct, indirect and induced.
The direct impact from the festival is the actual spend from an organization for example employment. Elora Festival would hire summer students, production assistants, stage hands and the singers themselves.
This means any out-of-town residents would not be staying at hotels or spending money in Elora during the multi-week festival, which is the indirect impact.
“We’re not going to be bringing the same people to town that we normally do for the month of July,” Barr said.
The induced impact is how people stay healthily employed at these businesses that serve those who work or visit the festival.
It can be difficult to measure the precise indirect or induced impact but Barr said the festival’s direct spend can be up to $700,000. He estimated the overall impact is well over a million dollars.
Both men said the cultural loss from festival cancellations are huge.
Radley said there are two typical types of Scottish Festival attendees, those who are looking for a new experience and the Scottish devotees.
“The Scottish were pretty much the ones who pioneered this part of Canada,” Radley said. “It’s a significant impact not only locally but to the Scottish diaspora in Canada.”
According to Barr, the Elora Festival has loyal attendees from as far as the northern states in the US.
“It’s an experiential based event because, not only are we doing more experiential art with our new artistic director, but you’re coming to experience this little community, the beautiful gorge and all the things that go with it,” Barr said.
Barr said he is cautiously optimistic that social distancing protocols will ease in time to get the choir together in the summer to create digital art and to have performances in the winter.
“That’s where it gets more fuzzy,” Barr said. “When can we have a big public event again and will that happen in the fall or later, I don’t know.”
Radley said the best way to keep people interested is to engage them with content on their website and Facebook page. He said when they can finally have their anniversary celebration, it will be a must-attend event.
“Watch this space for 2021 because we expect with the extra time we can come back and have a very meaningful 75th anniversary,” Radley said.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says wholesale sales, excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain, rose 0.4 per cent to $82.7 billion in July.
The increase came as sales in the miscellaneous subsector gained three per cent to reach $10.5 billion in July, helped by strength in the agriculture supplies industry group, which rose 9.2 per cent.
The food, beverage and tobacco subsector added 1.7 per cent to total $15 billion in July.
The personal and household goods subsector fell 2.5 per cent to $12.1 billion.
In volume terms, overall wholesale sales rose 0.5 per cent in July.
Statistics Canada started including oilseed and grain as well as the petroleum and petroleum products subsector as part of wholesale trade last year, but is excluding the data from monthly analysis until there is enough historical data.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VICTORIA – British Columbia is forecasting a record budget deficit and a rising debt of almost $129 billion less than two weeks before the start of a provincial election campaign where economic stability and future progress are expected to be major issues.
Finance Minister Katrine Conroy, who has announced her retirement and will not seek re-election in the Oct. 19 vote, said Tuesday her final budget update as minister predicts a deficit of $8.9 billion, up $1.1 billion from a forecast she made earlier this year.
Conroy said she acknowledges “challenges” facing B.C., including three consecutive deficit budgets, but expected improved economic growth where the province will start to “turn a corner.”
The $8.9 billion deficit forecast for 2024-2025 is followed by annual deficit projections of $6.7 billion and $6.1 billion in 2026-2027, Conroy said at a news conference outlining the government’s first quarterly financial update.
Conroy said lower corporate income tax and natural resource revenues and the increased cost of fighting wildfires have had some of the largest impacts on the budget.
“I want to acknowledge the economic uncertainties,” she said. “While global inflation is showing signs of easing and we’ve seen cuts to the Bank of Canada interest rates, we know that the challenges are not over.”
Conroy said wildfire response costs are expected to total $886 million this year, more than $650 million higher than originally forecast.
Corporate income tax revenue is forecast to be $638 million lower as a result of federal government updates and natural resource revenues are down $299 million due to lower prices for natural gas, lumber and electricity, she said.
Debt-servicing costs are also forecast to be $344 million higher due to the larger debt balance, the current interest rate and accelerated borrowing to ensure services and capital projects are maintained through the province’s election period, said Conroy.
B.C.’s economic growth is expected to strengthen over the next three years, but the timing of a return to a balanced budget will fall to another minister, said Conroy, who was addressing what likely would be her last news conference as Minister of Finance.
The election is expected to be called on Sept. 21, with the vote set for Oct. 19.
“While we are a strong province, people are facing challenges,” she said. “We have never shied away from taking those challenges head on, because we want to keep British Columbians secure and help them build good lives now and for the long term. With the investments we’re making and the actions we’re taking to support people and build a stronger economy, we’ve started to turn a corner.”
Premier David Eby said before the fiscal forecast was released Tuesday that the New Democrat government remains committed to providing services and supports for people in British Columbia and cuts are not on his agenda.
Eby said people have been hurt by high interest costs and the province is facing budget pressures connected to low resource prices, high wildfire costs and struggling global economies.
The premier said that now is not the time to reduce supports and services for people.
Last month’s year-end report for the 2023-2024 budget saw the province post a budget deficit of $5.035 billion, down from the previous forecast of $5.9 billion.
Eby said he expects government financial priorities to become a major issue during the upcoming election, with the NDP pledging to continue to fund services and the B.C. Conservatives looking to make cuts.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the debt would be going up to more than $129 billion. In fact, it will be almost $129 billion.
NANAIMO, B.C. – Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney says he’ll be advising the Liberal party to flip some the challenges posed by an increasingly divided and dangerous world into an economic opportunity for Canada.
But he won’t say what his specific advice will be on economic issues that are politically divisive in Canada, like the carbon tax.
He presented his vision for the Liberals’ economic policy at the party’s caucus retreat in Nanaimo, B.C. today, after he agreed to help the party prepare for the next election as chair of a Liberal task force on economic growth.
Carney has been touted as a possible leadership contender to replace Justin Trudeau, who has said he has tried to coax Carney into politics for years.
Carney says if the prime minister asks him to do something he will do it to the best of his ability, but won’t elaborate on whether the new adviser role could lead to him adding his name to a ballot in the next election.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says she has been taking advice from Carney for years, and that his new position won’t infringe on her role.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
