Inflation, rising costs and COVID-19 restrictions threaten to shut down world-class bike park

The public sector is growing out of control and government spending is skyrocketing, driving up inflation, taxes, and costs for small business owners.

All of this is occurring while folks are still reeling from COVID-19 restrictions that shut down or severely limited operations — restrictions which saw many budding enterprises snipped before they could ever really blossom. Paired with rising chaos in major cities and the costs associated with increased crime and theft, it is a wonder how small businesses can survive at all.

While any person's dream of running a business coming crashing to a halt due to overwhelming external circumstances is tragic, sometimes a business becomes so central to a community that when it goes out of business it devastates owners and patrons alike.

B-Line Indoor Bike Park in Calgary, Alberta is a world class 60,000 square-foot biking facility. It features pump tracks, jump lines, a full service pro-shop and a massive foam pit among a myriad of amenities that see thousands of folks of all ages and backgrounds using to get healthy and have fun on a daily basis. It is also unlike anything else in the prairies, and one of only a few facilities of its kind in the world. It has understandably become part of the backbone of the biking community in Alberta.

Owner Ryan Greenberg saw annual memberships at B-Line surge after opening in 2017 and felt ahead of schedule as a business owner trying to establish a sustainable facility. But COVID-19 restrictions dealt a major blow to his business. Unlike many businesses that didn’t make it through COVID-19, B-Line barely survived those harmful regulations, but more problems were just around the corner.

Despite forecasting for as much as a 30% increase in operating costs, B-Line instead saw monthly operating costs (prior to rent) increase from $13,000/month to $37,000/month in less than a decade, and insurmountable and frankly unimaginable spike. Inflation, taxes and costs collectively made the very conservative and calculated business plans he’d laid out just a few years prior utterly moot.

Adding insult to injury, a string of break-ins and thefts at B-Line further hurt their bottom line, and Ryan shared that police may have found the culprits and a significant amount of B-Line stock, including valuable pro-shop goods. However authorities say B-Line may never get their goods back.

Costs in the last few years — as a result of unfettered government spending, an inflating public sector, inaction on crime and COVID-19 restrictions — have changed the atmosphere so drastically, that if an Albertan with a dream like Ryan’s wanted to build a business like B-Line today the costs would simply be too much.

Fortunately, B-Line is already built so that major investment is taken care of, but now it needs to be protected. There is a serious risk that without a major surge of support to offset the incredible costs of doing business, everything they’ve built may be gutted, and as we learned from parents, riders in attendance, and from owner Ryan Greenberg himself, that would be a truly devastating blow.

We were also happy to be joined by professional rodeo cowboy Tariq Elnaga who traded in his horse and stirrups for an iron-horse with pedals for an evening to support the bike park. He laid out the extent to which the Trudeau Liberals are spending and taxing small businesses into oblivion and making prosperity impossible.

While we certainly hope that Albertans, and perhaps even a few major sponsors, will rally behind B-Line, the issues this business is facing are a symptom of a much larger problem — irresponsible government spending and taxing that needs to be severely reigned in before more Canadian gems like B-Line close their doors for good and fade into memory

The carbon tax is just another way that entrepreneurs, small business owners and prosperity creators are being beaten down in Canada. Sign our petition at StopTheCarbonTax.com if you agree that Canadians can’t afford another tax.