Entire town will feel effects of Rona closure, says Bay Roberts mayor

The town of Bay Roberts will take a hit due to the loss of about 40 jobs when the local Rona store closes in January, says Philip Wood, the town's mayor.

But the effects don't stop there, he says: those people and their families will then spend less in the community and may even move away in search of work elsewhere.

"Something like this affects the entire economy,"he told theSt. John's Morning Show,noting that he thinks there are 35 full-time and fiveor sixpart-time jobs on the chopping block.

For a community of 7,100, according to the 2016 Canadian census, that's a big blow, he said especially around Christmas time.

Employees at six Rona stores across Newfoundland were called to last-minutemeetings on Sunday where they were told the stores would be closing on Jan. 27, 2019, and they'd all be losing their jobs. Two independently owned Rona stores one in Fortune and one in Wabush, Labdrador will stay open.

Wood says he found out on Twitter on Sunday night after CBCbroke the news.

"I put out a few direct messages and no one, it seems, knew anything about this," he said.

He said he got a noteon Monday morning from Lowe's, in response to an email he'd sent them, confirming that the Bay Roberts location would be closing and that the closures were the"right path for the organization's future."

He's now sent another letter to Lowe's, detailingthe impact the move will have on the community and asking them to consider whether the company's "right path" includes a stopin Bay Roberts.

"We would welcome them talking to the town," he said.

But as significant as the consequences will be in the community, he said, the community's hearts are with the employees who will be without work at the start of the new year.

"It's a small community, everyone knows everyone, and I think the first reaction of everybody is for the employees themselves."

Impact extends to builders and contractors

The Rona closures will be felt by some builders and contractors in Newfoundland, according to Victoria Belbin, CEO of the CanadianHomeBuilders' Association in Newfoundland andLabrador.

Rona was a source of credit for some contractors, lending money up front for some projects and builds.

Belbinsaid that practice was more common in the past, in particular during the years of the oil boom, and that their absence as a lender won't be as profound as it may have been.

"We have a different industry today," she told media at an associationmeeting Monday held to address the news about Rona.

The biggest loss for builders, she said, will be the business relationships. Ronacame to the province in 2006, when the Quebec company purchasedChester Dawe Ltd., a Newfoundland business.

"The name has changed, but a lot of the people haven't through the years," Belbin said.

Builders and contractors in the province built their businesses on the relationships they had with those people at Chester Dawe and then Rona, she said.

"Yep, there is going to be a transition time forthese businesses, but I'm sure that they'll be fine."

The store closures in Newfoundland are part of a sweep of closures of "under performing" Rona stores across Canada and the U.S, according to a statement from Lowe's sent Monday.

That Lowe's considered all of the Rona stores it owned in the province to be "under performing" is not an indication that building or contracting is struggling, Belbininsisted.

"It's depending on what their definition of 'under performing' is.I know that there are millions of dollars in sales that are happening ... I wouldn't consider them under performing, there's definitely going tospace for ourother supplier companies to step into that market."

With files from Jamie Fitzpatrick

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