The city is encouraging citizens to make their dollars count locally by supporting Calgary businesses and entrepreneurs with their #BuyLocalYYC campaign.
According to the city, the #BuyLocalYYC campaign reminds Calgarians of the impact they have when supporting local businesses – especially with the busy holiday season approaching.
“The best way to help Calgary’s economy is by supporting local businesses – and we have so many amazing ones,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi, in a prepared release.
“Calgary is full of hard-working entrepreneurs who pour their heart into our city. We’re working hard to make Calgary the best place to start and grow a business – and you can help too. Let’s show our support and #buylocalyyc.”
Calgary business has been hit hard in recent years, with downtown property values plummeting. That’s shifted the non-residential property tax burden to small and medium-sized businesses, with many seeing double digit increases.
Calgary’s Comeback: Improve support for local business
The #BuyLocalYYC campaign part of the Calgary’s Comeback strategy; one of the core areas is to improve support for local businesses.
“The most important thing for our team right now is supporting businesses to start and grow quickly, and to innovate and expand,” said Sonya Sharp, Leader of the Business and Local Economy team.
“This means finding ways to save businesses time and money when they work with The City, and helping to support businesses, working with our local partners. Buying local is one way everyone can contribute to helping our local businesses during these tough economic times.”
There’s been a handful of businesses both lost and gained in the northwest community of Kensington, one of the popular Calgary retail areas. One of the losses was a Starbucks. The other, is the closure of the Livingstone Cavell Extraordinary Toys shope.
“Calgarians supporting Calgarians is so important, especially during challenging times,” said Annie MacInnis, Executive Director of the Kensington Business Improvement Area.
“When you purchase from Calgary businesses, you’re supporting your community and reinvesting into our local economy. We’re all in this together.”
Businesses looking to join the campaign can get a free toolkit from the city.
