Mr. Speaker, small businesses are at the heart of our local economies. They create jobs and add value to our communities. They have been doing their part during the COVID-19 pandemic by closing their doors to support public health and adapting, and the NDP has pushed the government to give these small businesses the help they need by improving the commercial rent and wage subsidy programs. The problem is that we are 11 months into this pandemic and many small businesses are still falling through the cracks. Start-ups in particular have been completely left out of these programs, prevented from accessing much-needed government supports.
The last time I stood up to support small businesses in the House, I talked about Bear & Joey, a new restaurant in my riding. After years of planning and pouring his life savings into developing the business, the owner was finally ready to open it in May. It is facing the exact same challenges as other small businesses, but because it had the bad luck of opening during a global pandemic, it did not qualify for wage or rent subsidies.
Since then I have heard from many other businesses in Victoria that are also not getting the help they need to survive. I would like to share a few of their stories.
The Vicious Poodle, on Johnson Street in Victoria, is another small business that had the bad luck of opening during a global pandemic. It is a new LGBTQ2SAI+ pub and currently the only LGBTQ+ dedicated space on Vancouver Island.
After securing a location in September 2019, the owner began renovations with plans to open the first week of April, but the pandemic meant the completed space sat empty for two months before it was able to open at a reduced capacity. It created 20 local jobs in a welcoming environment for marginalized workers who often have difficulty finding respectable employment. It does not qualify for any government programs. As the pandemic has gone on, the owner has had to lay off more and more of his staff and is now in the position of having to close the doors for the next few months and hope he does not lose his business entirely.
Another business in Victoria, Hey Happy Coffee, first opened in 2014 and enjoyed five years of steady growth. In 2019, when the space next door became available, owner Rob Kettner took the opportunity to knock down the wall and expand the business. He put $400,000 of his own savings and loans into the expansion.
When it was finished in February 2020, there were lineups around the door and every seat was full. However, less than four weeks later it was forced to close its doors because of the pandemic. When it was able to reopen in May as a take-out window, Rob signed up for the wage subsidy program, which covered 75% of labour costs at first. However, once the wage subsidy formula was amended, he began receiving only the base minimum of 10%.
The new formula does not take into account that a year ago Hey Happy Coffee was a much smaller business, with much lower rent and costs. Before the pandemic, Hey Happy Coffee was financially successful, but today it is losing between $10,000 and $15,000 a month. Rob said the irony of the situation is that he expanded his business because of its success and popularity, but he may now lose everything. He could not have possibly foreseen the pandemic, but he told me that if Hey Happy Coffee could receive a fair wage subsidy based on its new business model, he believes his business can survive the pandemic. However, if it goes under, it will be because the government has let it fall through the cracks.
These small businesses and many across the country feel abandoned. After doing their part to support public health, why are small businesses and start-ups still not getting the help they need to survive the pandemic? Why are they being left to fail?
