Last week, incumbent Alan Halberstadt released a video stating he will continue his push to help small business in Windsor. According to most of those small businesses, the only push they are getting from anyone at City Hall is over a cliff.

In a recent survey, small businesses rated Windsor the worst in the province to deal with. Small businesses in Windsor gave our local government a failing grade in five categories with almost 60% questioning the integrity of bylaws and policies. This is alarming considering small businesses account for over 90 percent of all Ontario businesses.

According to an August 24, 2010 article in the Windsor Star, the Vice President of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Satinder Chera, said in a press release that “these results are a wakeup call for local leaders who have been accustomed to treating their small business constituents like cash cows.”

If remaining silent and taking no action on the concerns of small businesses over the past 13 years as councillor has been to help small business, it is worrisome to see what may really be happening in his other success claims. Talk is nice, but it doesn’t stop small businesses from having to close down because of the lack of attention paid them by the leaders of our city.

Through operating WindsorEats, I have walked the walk in promoting small business in Windsor. I hear all the concerns on what is restricting them from being successful. The true choice for small business isn’t with 13 years of stagnancy, it is with someone who deals with small business on a day to day basis, walks in the shoes of small businesses and understands their struggles.

In a recent talk with Steve Micallef, owner of the now defunct Biscuits & Gravy, he indicated the construction on Pelissier forced him to close his business. He mentioned there was no consultation with business owners regarding how construction would affect them until after the road was closed and torn up.  Steve said it was essentially just to say “this is happening” and not take in any input from the people being affected.

“Businesses weren’t informed of the construction schedule on a day to day basis”, Steve said. “As an example, they decided to pull up the sidewalks in front of the businesses during our lunch rush.”

The red tape constricting small businesses needs to be removed and the processes simplified. While City Hall seems to be able to procrastinate, the business world cannot.

It isn’t just small business owners that are facing these roadblocks. Festival organizers are also receiving the cold shoulder. I deal with festival organizers on a regular basis. A majority of them feel there have been times when City Hall does not realize exactly how they do what they do. One organizer even told me that “this can be attributed in part to the fact that many of the councillors have no real world experience in business.”

Halberstadt also says another one of his focuses is creating a small business incubator, however, when investor Italo Ferrari made an announcement regarding this exact idea in Downtown Windsor, located in the ward Halberstadt currently presides over, and brought entrepreneurs and city officials alike through the building, Halberstadt was a no show.

If Alan Halberstadt plans to continue with his “focus” on small business as he claims in his video, our small business community is in a heap of trouble.