So, I have e-mailed our premiere, Danielle Smith, our MLA, Rodger Reid, MP of Foothills John Barlow, minister of Agriculture, forestry and Rural Economic Development, Nate Horner and have not heard back from a single one. I understand they have many other initiatives to focus on but supporting small businesses and farmers is long overdue. And we received the list we basically had to pay $700 for. That’s right, there’s another list, we asked to see it before paying to see if we could even afford to move forward but they wouldn’t give it to us until we paid. Change the swing of our doors, emergency lighting and our sliding door to our personal space has to be automatic. Oh, and the wall separating the store from our personal shop has to be fire rated. We are unable to dump more money into a loosing battle.
We plan to tell them we won’t be making these changes and see what they come back with. I never thought I’d think Ontario and BC is more farmer friendly than Alberta. It’s sad and my desire to plant roots here has significantly decreased.
If they want to shut us down they’ll have to come here everyday to check because they can’t stop people from driving in our driveway unless physically here.
We are angry and discouraged. But, I will update when we hear back on our response.