Madam Chair, Vancouver East small businesses cannot understand why the Liberals require the landlord to apply for the first commercial rent subsidy program in order to qualify. With the second program, the minister will only allow small businesses that are still struggling to survive the pandemic to apply retroactively to September 27, not April 1. If the idea is to help small businesses survive through the second wave into the future, small businesses will not be able to sustain themselves if the new commercial rent subsidy program is not backdated to April. Surely the minister realizes they have to carry the debt from the first wave forward. The past is part of their future. What will it take for the minister to make the program retroactive to April?
In the House of Commons on November 5th, 2020. See this statement in context.