The MP for Central Newfoundland, who is also a metro-area business owner, is pointing the finger at the pandemic and public health measures for the decline in his business that eventually led to the closure of his two Smitty’s Restaurant locations this week.
Clifford Small reportedly owes more than $350,000 in unpaid rent and back taxes.
The restaurants’ 35 employees were laid off this week.
Small expressed his regret for the impact on his workers on the Tim Powers Show on VOCM.
Smitty’s in Mount Pearl (VOCM)
He says they paid the employees with the “very last nickel in the company” and $20,000 worth of perishables which were offered to the workers on shift that day. The rest of the food was donated to a local outreach organization.
Small says the business just never fully recovered from the pandemic.
He blames the struggles he, and other Canadian businesses have faced on the way in which the pandemic was handled, pointing to the United States which “bounced out of the pandemic so much faster than we did, and it shows in their economy.”
The City of Mount Pearl has filed a lawsuit in court claiming back taxes owed on the Smitty’s property on Gibson Drive.
