The mayor of St. John's is dismissing the idea of tax breaks for businesses affected by construction work in the downtown area.

The harbour cleanup has seen sections of Harbour Drive and Water Street, two of the busiest streets in the city and key routes for downtown commuters, closed as work continues on the final stages of a sewage treatment system.

The work is part of a project to divert sewer lines from the harbour to the new treatment centre.

Business operators, who say they're seeing fewer customers because of torn-up roads, detours and a lack of parking, want a tax break.

Mayor Dennis O'Keefe said he's willing to meet with the businesses but he won't offer tax breaks.

"We've never gone the tax route," O'Keefe said. "We have gone the compensation route, when the accessibility has been eliminated."

Compensation in some cases

While O'Keefe said the city has compensated businesses that have been totally cut off in the past, he said it's difficult to say whether the harbour cleanup project is the only reason for the loss of customers.

"We've actually provided accessibility," he said, "Albeit, it's not the smooth accessibility, let's say, as it normally would be, but that also is ... the price for all of us, in doing these major construction projects."

Wanda Reid, assistant manager at Magic Wok, a restaurant in the middle of the construction work, told CBC News last week that, between a broken water main and the closure of the road in front of the business, it's been a rough summer.

"Nobody even explained to us that it was going to be closed," she said. "Then we were told three weeks and when we had a meeting in June with the city, [we] were told it would be completed by the middle of July, stretch it out [to the] end of July at the latest.

"And here it is the middle of August, they're just tearing up the road, let alone putting it back together."

Work in the area, including lane closures, detours and temporary shutdowns, is expected to continue into the fall.