Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise to speak again about the commercial rent assistance program or, I should say, the flawed commercial rent assistance program.
On April 9, my colleague, the finance critic for the NDP, the member for New Westminster—Burnaby, and I put forward a proposal to the government to come up with a commercial rent assistance program to help those businesses that closed their doors for public health to get the help they needed so that they could get through the pandemic. Many of them are barely hanging on. They are either in arrears with their landlord, steeped in debt, looking at bankruptcy or have closed their doors, but they could possibly reopen if the government fixed its flawed, poorly designed program that excluded many.
We need a program that is tenant-driven, is set in the same loss in business centres as the wage subsidy and is backdated to the beginning of the program, so that people who were excluded because their landlord would not apply could actually apply to the program and get access to the same funds that their neighbour might have gotten. At the end of the day, we are running this huge deficit to help people get through this, and it is absolutely unfair to those who are excluded because of a technicality to be responsible, or their children or grandchildren, for paying back the deficit while not getting access to those funds.
It is ironic that we are having this conversation today, because the Conservatives put forward a motion that would have triggered an election, since the government decided it was a confidence motion. Both parties were willing to go to an election, despite the fact that thousands and thousands of businesses are waiting for help.
The government announced on October 9 that it would revise the program and come back and help Canadians with an expanded CEBA, a wage subsidy that would be extended throughout the winter and into the spring, and a fix for this broken rent program. What does it do? It puts all of those businesses on the brink. The Liberals promised help and then threatened to go to an election, which means it would have been months before these businesses would have gotten the help they needed, and we would have seen a colossal collapse of small businesses across this country because of power-hungry parties. We are here to help people.
Dan Kelly from CFIB said today, “Absolutely critical that all political parties pull together and get the rent subsidy (CERS), CEBA loan expansion and wage subsidy (CEWS) extension across the parliamentary finish line.”
Let us get the business support package passed quickly. We need to know when that package is coming.
Mark Chandler from Parksville who owns Five Star Wholesale said, “My landlord chose not to bother with the paperwork on this. My company spent over $10,000 with no relief. The plaza next door had landlord support and to me that's frustrating. We should be dealing direct on this and not at the discretion of the landlord.”
How right is he? He has been excluded. He is running debt to pay his rent. Like many, he is in arrears.
Lisa Bernard Christensen from Courtenay cites, “My landlord agreed to try to apply after I was giving notice. Too little too late. I needed it three or four months ago. Now the damage is done.”
We have made a mistake. The Liberals have left these people out. They have excluded companies like All Mex'd Up Taco Shop in Port Alberni in my riding. It was excluded because it rents from the City of Port Alberni. The City of Port Alberni was excluded from applying; therefore, its tenants were excluded from applying. This business has been penalized because it rents from a local government.
This is unfair. This has to be fixed, and the sense or urgency could not be greater. The Liberals need to get some legislation tabled yesterday. I am glad that we voted not to send Canadians to an election and leave these small businesses hanging. They cannot be hanging on any longer.