Madam Speaker, I am honoured to present a petition of Vancouver Islanders. They cite that COVID-19 has resulted in a crisis for small business owners and that during the pandemic, revenues have been catastrophically impacted as a result of closures, capacity limits and social restrictions, and operating costs have spiked. They also cite that the Canada emergency wage subsidy, the emergency rent subsidy and emergency business account and highly affected sectors credit availability program have played a critical role in saving some jobs and many businesses. However, many businesses remain ineligible due only to the timing of their businesses and their projects.
The petitioners call on the government to adjust the eligibility of these programs to include both new and newly expanded businesses that can demonstrate their projects were non-reversible at the onset of the pandemic; that it implement alternate methods for determining the wage subsidy and commercial rent assistance program for these businesses; and back pay to March 15, 2020, both the wage subsidy and the rent program to these businesses based on the alternate rate.