Businesses, jobs, even homes lost to new lockdown: Biz groups
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A full lockdown will destroy businesses across the province without strong government supports, their associations say.
Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB,) said surveys show one-third of Ontario business owners do not believe they can survive another lockdown.
“Regardless of whether one thinks the government’s gone too far or not far enough, I would hope we could all agree that the decision today will essentially kill thousands and thousands of businesses,” Kelly said Monday.
“We certainly know it will mean that tens of thousands of Ontarians will be losing their jobs, thousands of entrepreneurs will be losing their life’s work, their business, and many, many are going to be losing their home as a result because the house is often mortgaged in order to get the business going.”
January is usually a slow month for business, and a lockdown in February would do more damage, Ford said.
“But I can reassure every single business owner out there we’re there for you,” he said.
The Ford government announced a new Ontario Small Business Support Grant to provide a minimum of $10,000 and up to $20,000 for eligible small business owners on top of existing supports.
While the new program is welcome, the provincial government would need to do far more, including matching some federal support programs, to save businesses that in some cases have absorbed $100,000 in additional costs due to COVID-19, Kelly said.
A resentment shared by vast numbers of small business owners — and one aimed directly at the Ford government — is the decision to allow big box stores to continue in-person sales of non-essential items in lockdown zones while small businesses were forced into curbside or delivery sales only, Kelly said.
Diane J. Brisebois, president and CEO of the Retail Council of Canada (RCC), said in a statement that the government should have restricted in-person capacity to 20% but allowed stores to remain open to shoppers.
“It will always be the right decision to prioritize life and health, but the lockdowns we’ve seen over the past several weeks have created nothing short of economic carnage – lost jobs and businesses – without improving health outcomes,” Brisebois said in a statement.
“It has been a mistake to close most retailers entirely since stores are low-risk environments with approximately 1 in every 400 COVID-19 cases resulting from a retail setting, thus the reason why we proposed a 20% capacity restriction some time ago.”
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