The City of Moose Jaw won an award last week, but it's one they would rather not accept.
The City's "brutal customer service" earned them one of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business' annual Paperweight 'Awards' as part of their 10th Red Tape Awareness Week. The dishonours shine a light on the worst examples of red tape headaches for business owners across the country.
Moose Jaw was cited for the lack of communication and response during the lengthy water main replacement on High Street in 2018. High Street was also the winner of CAA's Worst Roads Campaign for 2018.
“Given that High Street West was voted the worst road in Saskatchewan in 2018, it’s not surprising the City of Moose Jaw is receiving a CFIB Paperweight Award for creating one of the worst red tape headaches for business owners with its extremely delayed water main replacement,” said Jennifer Henshaw, CFIB’s senior policy analyst for the Prairie region. “The city’s water main replacement project on High Street West was supposed to take three weeks, but mismanagement dragged it on for almost 10 months.”
Curtis Temple from Scuba Guys Dive Shop believed that the roadwork took an irreversible toll on his business which closed on Jan. 19. He was far from the only business on High Street West that suffered.
“It’s a shame that we are getting this award due to the City of Moose Jaw’s mismanagement and the lack of communication during the delayed water main replacement on High Street West. I wish [the City] was getting a better award instead of a Paperweight. As a small business owner, what the City did absolutely crippled our store. I hope they learn from this award and realize that their actions affect business owners, their livelihood and the community,” said Don McKenzie, owner of Water Vision Services, a High Street West business that was impacted.
Phase 2 of the project on High Street was supposed to be done before the end of 2017 per their contract with the contractor they hired, but the work dragged on through the winter. The City took over the project from the contractor in May and completed it three months later, but the damage had been done at that point.
“The City’s lack of communication with the businesses located on High Street West left them completely frustrated,” Henshaw said. “Some business owners had their water shut off for weeks on end without notice, and no notification was provided on when it would be turned back on. To add insult to injury, one business owner had his water and sewer lines disconnected for almost four months and yet continued to receive water bills.”
The City said that they learned from the experience and, starting in the spring of 2018, they worked with their engineering consultants and contractors to take a more proactive approach to communication with property owners during the construction season.
“We appreciate the issues faced by High Street property owners and at our first opportunity in May of 2018 the City of Moose Jaw took over the project from the initial contractors. We ensured project completion while executing frequent, consistent communication to area property owners and residents regarding the construction timeline," said Mayor Fraser Tolmie in a statement. "While the CFIB focuses time and effort on looking back, the City of Moose Jaw is focused on further refining our construction and communication practices as we continue to address repairing and replacing our City’s long-ignored infrastructure.”
The CFIB is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 110,000 members, including 5,250 in Saskatchewan, across every industry and region.
Other "winners" included: the Town of Smithers, B.C. for a third year running; British Columbia’s Community Benefits Agreement; The City of Toronto; Quebec’s Liquor, Racing and Gaming Authority; Nova Scotia’s Occupational Health and Safety Division; The Government of Canada for its user-un-friendly websites; Health Canada for its lack of clarity on the cannabis rules and Quebec’s Cannabis Regulation Act, which prohibited one craft brewer from using the word “cannabis” on the labels of his previously legal cannabis-flavoured beer. At the same time, Quebec’s liquor board said that the brewer they must put “cannabis” on their labels.
