Councillor George Maroosis wants to know the economic impact the COVID-19 lockdown has had on local businesses.
Maroosis put forward a notice of motion during Tuesday’s meeting saying he would like council to direct the city’s CAO to do an economic impact study on the lockdown.
“I don’t believe for one minute that things will go back to the way they were,” Maroosis said in an interview. “It’s information that I think council should have in order to make decisions. I’m tired of people saying ‘we decided two years ago to build such and such and it doesn’t matter that there’s COVID’.”
Maroosis says the city’s economic development department often does impact studies for various reasons.
“If they do it for Summer in the Park, they should surely do it for the pandemic,” he noted. “It might even be an opportunity for a town hall. Something where the business people can speak about their impacts to their business.”
Maroosis’s notice came on the same day a letter was sent to council, public health and provincial dignitaries on behalf of over 200 local businesses requesting ease on lockdown restrictions.
The councillor says this was a coincidence; however, he did bring up many of the same points, including how Walmart is allowed to remain open while small businesses are not.
“It’s not fairly spread suffering,” Maroosis said.
He also fears the city’s commercial tax base will take a hit from the pandemic. Shopping centres like the North Bay Mall and Northgate Mall pay their commercial taxes based on the revenue generated.
“If stores leave Northgate and the North Bay Mall… do you know how much we get for those spaces? Zero,” he stated. “That, in the end, is going to equate to revenues.”
“We’re doing business predicated on expecting this money coming in,” he added.
Maroosis was one of three councillors to vote against the 2021 municipal budget, citing the economic impact of the pandemic as a reason to hold off on the budget’s two main capital projects: the Cassellholme renovation and the new community centre.
Maroosis’s motion will be on the agenda of the next council meeting.
