Pre-budget roundtables showed constituents from Banff to Airdrie are concerned about small businesses.

Banff- Airdrie, MP Blake Richards, shares he held recent roundtables in Airdrie, Canmore and Cochrane with many concerned about the direction of taxation and regulations surrounding businesses in our local communities. "It really affects a lot of our local businesses and then, therefore, affects everybody because the price of things we buy goes up, our taxes go up, it just makes it more difficult for people to afford to make a living and feed their families. That was a real common theme across all the meetings, they feel there is a real wrong move in that direction."

Constituents would love to see Richards continue to advocate strongly as they feel slighted by both our federal and provincial government. "They need to see some support for our local small businesses. It just feels like they are constantly under attack. They need to see some support for our oil and gas industry, particularly to see some pipelines get built. They are really wanting us to push so we can get focus in the right direction. We have seen a lot of opposition from both the Trudeau government and the Notley government and they want someone to speak up for them, and they know I will continue to do that. It is on both levels and that makes it more than twice as bad because it is exponentially a problem when you have attacks hitting you on almost a weekly basis where there is something else new that is going to affect everybody, it becomes pretty hard to take after awhile."

Other topics/themes brought up in the discussions were finding our way to a balanced budget, supporting our military and veterans, the importance of tourism, and how our communities can become more innovative.

Richards shares over 60 people came out across the riding to give feedback, which is fairly typical. "Some years we've had more and some may be slightly less. It's always hard to find the time but it's always great when people show up and give their feedback but for people that aren't able to make it lots of people send in surveys so they give their feedback that way."

If you were unable to make any of the roundtables feel free to go HERE and fill out the survey by Friday, February 9 or drop MP Richards a line. Richards is hoping to have a formal letter submitted to Finance Minister Bill Morneau shortly. A formal date has yet to be set as to when the federal budget is coming down.