We have a letter to various levels of government outlining our demands and the needs of our industry in this crisis. You can see our full letter here.
If you are a business or independent contractor in our industry and would like to join our coalition by adding your name to our letter fill in this form.
We are uniting to demand relief for our industry, which we built to be the social, emotional, and physical backbone for so many Canadians. A united voice will be instrumental in weathering this crisis together.
It's our responsibility now to do whatever we can to make sure we are still here when this crisis passes. Join today, and leave a comment to tell us how your practice has been affected.
Comments are included below.
The idea of borrowing money to pay rent, property taxes, business taxes and utilities on a space that I am not allowed to use is beyond ludicrous. The rent will go to my landlord who will use it to pay his/her mortgage on the building, after all, that’s the business “they” are in. Shouldn’t they be borrowing that money? In effect, I am being asked to pay for something that I do not receive: a space to conduct my business. It is the equivalent of me asking my clients to pay for training that they are not getting and if they can’t pay because they are not working then they need to borrow money but pay me. It is absolutely insane.
What needs to happen is; landlords need to be able to pause their mortgage and interest, not defer it. Landlords need to be able to pause rent until business owners can resume business. Property and business taxes need to be prorated to the periods we were lawfully able to conduct business not deferred to a time when we can.
We need to be able to pick up where we left off – without anymore debt. As entrepreneurs and solo business owners, we have taken a risk on ourselves and are now faced with a challenge that none of us could have predicted.
We do not need deferrals and loans, we need forgiveness and understanding. Our landlords need to be able to pause mortgages without penalty. Surely this is better than thousands of businesses across the country going bankrupt, mass commercial vacancy, decrease in commercial property value, mass foreclosures, more unemployment and less tax revenues.
It’s not the time that we’re closed that we won’t survive, it’s when we return we will be so far behind that we’ll never catch up.
We need a more fair and inclusive plan that helps small businesses sustain and then recover.
Thank you for taking the time to read these concerns.