Our View: This Labour Day think locally
Labour Day will be celebrated across the country next Monday. It serves as a time to pause and think not just of the men and women who work for a living in this area but also about the economy they help keep moving.
At a time like this, when the word recession is still fresh in our minds, the difficulty most businesses face is palpable.
That is why now, more than ever, it is important for business and labour to work together to improve the economy for all.
Despite reassuring rhetoric from both the provincial and federal government about the state of B.C. and Canada’s economies, it does not take much to search out businesses that are still suffering, long after the recession was officially deemed over.
Labour Day may traditionally be a day for workers to celebrate the rights they have won over the years but without viable businesses that pay proper wages and employ them, those rights mean nothing.
Politicians will tell us that small business is the engine that drives the B.C. economy. And on one level they are right.
But on a deeper level, it is workers who drive those businesses, whether it be wage-earning workers, owners toiling long hours to make their businesses viable or paid contract workers operating off-site.
For any economy to work properly, it needs its businesses and its workers to work well together and customers to patronize those businesses.
So, this Labour Day think of local businesses and commit to shop locally whenever you can. A strong local economy does more than simply line the pockets of business owners and paid employees.
The economy that you are supporting is the one that provides the services you rely on. And in the end, that helps every one, including you.
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