Not writing this editorial about how happy I am the labour dispute is over between the NHL and NHLPA will be tough, but here I go.
This week in Golden and other parts of British Columbia, many companies, both big and small, heard the news that Tercon, (who have been working on the Trans Canada Highway in the Kicking Horse Canyon), had filed for bankruptcy.
This has left many local businesses dangling in the wind for thousands of much needed dollars.
These projects have been, and will continue to be, a valuable source of income for businesses in towns like Golden.
However, when an incident like this happens, with such a large company, one has to wonder where the trust will come when the next construction company comes to town.
This project is seen as a government construction. These contracts are, and should be seen, as a fairly safe investments for local companies. They should be able to work with the companies and give credit to those firms who are awarded the work.
But as so many companies have recently learned, nothing seems to be safe in the economic days that we now live in. Though some of the businesses only lost a few hundred dollars, many others lost much more than that. This blow will inevitably filter down in a small town.
A few hundred dollars to a small business that is run from someone’s home, could have a drastic effect on an owner’s ability to keep the business going.
For a larger, more established business, the effects are no less important.
Monies lost have to be made up in some other way or written off on their bottom line. This has the potential to cost an employee their job if the dollar figure lost is high enough.
One job lost is a lot to a small community like Golden.
The question that seems to be on the minds of many of the people who have been, or will be affected by what has happened is, where does this leave our business?
That is not an easy question to find an answer to because of the wait and see attitude.
There is a process that the company and those in control will now have to go through, but based on speaking to those people who have been through this before, there does not seem to be much hope. The time it seems has come, where if a company is going to be awarded a large contract on any level, then there has to be more protection for the smaller businesses they are going to work with.
If I go to a bank and take a loan, I have to be responsible for paying it back. So in a case like this, safe guards should be in place to protect the little guy from getting steamrolled first when the big fish falls from the sky.
The fallout from this latest bit of bad news is a chapter of the story which has not yet been written.
However the time is here for those in power to take on the responsibility to protect the small businesses that make up the backbone of small town B.C. It has been a tough few years and adding to the problems is not what is needed at this time.