In recent days, oil prices have yo-yoed up and down a bit, but are still well below where they were in the summer when oil prices were around $100 a barrel.
Olds and District Chamber of Commerce president Doug Rieberger fears lower oil prices could hurt the chamber and its members, although he's not aware of any specific impacts yet.
“I haven't heard too much as of yet because it's been fairly recent; it's been a fairly fast slide. But around the area I've heard some projects are being shut down or companies are holding back on some projects,” he says.
Rieberger says the chamber could be impacted in two ways:
major oil-related sponsors of the chamber may pull or cut back their sponsorships;
Secondly, some retail firms not directly connected to the oilpatch may see a drop-off in business as oilpatch employees lose jobs or otherwise see their spending power drop.
“Of course, when things start tightening up there, money tightens up overall, so it affects our members. They may be service-oriented companies (for example),” Rieberger says.
“If the money's not there, there's not going to be as much money going into retail, so it has the potential to impact the area,” he adds.
Rieberger says falling oil prices have the “potential” to hurt chamber sponsorships.
“Whether it will or not, it depends on how long it (the slide in oil prices) goes on,” he says.
“I don't think we're going to lose our corporate members, but it does have that potential.”
“The only good thing on the other side of it is that agriculture is up. Some of the commodity prices are up,” Rieberger says.
