Some businesses are being evicted by their landlords and a local business organization is calling for immediate action.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is calling on Ottawa to fix a rent relief program that it says is doing little to help businesses through a very trying time.
The Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program was designed to help businesses with rent expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the CFIB’s Vaughan Hammond is calling it a disaster.
Hammond says the program relies on landlords to apply for the funding which covers up to 75 per cent of a tenant’s rental expenses.
However, what they’ve found is that few landlords want to go through the administratively-complex program, and as a result tenants are falling through the cracks and begging for a fix.
Hammond says the provincial government should redirect the approximately $2-million allocated locally for the program and give it directly to businesses to help pay their rent.