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By Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: Restaurant owners and workers deserve adequate supports – and an apology

Apr 8, 2021 | 4:04 PM

A WEEK AND A HALF after B.C. restaurants were told to shut down their indoor dining operations, John Horgan and the NDP have finally announced their promised supports to help these small businesses and their workers – and boy, are they underwhelming.

They are taking more than $50 million out of their botched $345-million Small and Medium-Sized Business Recovery Grant to create the Circuit Breaker Business Relief Grant. They are not committing any new funds for this – it’s the same pool of money already in place, with a new name. What’s more, businesses can only get the full grant amount if they have more than 100 employees. This will leave lots of small businesses out in the cold yet again.

Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon also announced that restaurants can apply for the Circuit Breaker grant next week – but why not immediately? If there were no new funds to organize and put together, why did the government not have this in place on the same day that stricter public health orders were announced?

The minister has also said repeatedly that the Small and Medium-Sized Business Recovery Grant program has had massive uptake and was likely going to be fully subscribed. The NDP obviously doesn’t believe that, if they are taking funds out of that program to support this new one. The NDP is basically acknowledging their overall programs for small business – and the business recovery grant specifically – have been a disaster. The evidence is clear, with less than a third of the recovery grant money having been doled out a year after funding was unanimously approved in the Legislature.

Meanwhile, in announcing this Circuit Breaker grant for affected businesses, the minister left out a key group: the many workers affected by layoffs during this time. When asked what sort of help they could expect, Kahlon just pushed them off to the federal government. These individuals are waiting for help from John Horgan and they just aren’t going to get it.

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These groups are also waiting for something else from the premier – an apology. He should issue one to the business owners who were given 11 hours’ notice of the shutdown, a repeat of the New Year’s Eve fiasco where the government also left them hanging. The premier should also apologize to the young workers he recently disparaged with inappropriate comments about their alleged COVID-spreading behaviour.

By blaming those aged 20-to-39 for the recent rise in COVID-19 case numbers, and by saying things like “don’t blow this for the rest of us,” John Horgan is ignoring the realities these young people face. They’re more likely to be disproportionately represented in frontline occupations as teachers, nurses, grocery store clerks and delivery workers. They’re also more likely to work in the service industry, dealing with the general public throughout this pandemic. And many are more likely to live with roommates and in smaller quarters, making it more difficult for them to keep their distance from others. The premier‘s scapegoating of these hard-working British Columbians was disrespectful, insulting and misplaced.

Sadly, many of these young workers in the service industry were among those handed pink slips last week after the new orders were announced. So on top of being blamed by the premier, they’re also wondering how they will pay their bills and survive the next month or two. Unfortunately, the latest attempt by the NDP to “help” totally excludes them.

Will this Circuit Breaker grant be enough to save the restaurants, pubs and bars who can no longer offer indoor dining for the time being? Time will tell. But it’s hard to be optimistic when we consider how badly the NDP has rolled out supports during this pandemic. Many, many small businesses across the province are suffering and so far, the response from the government has not been adequate.

The premier and his jobs minister need to do better when it comes to helping these businesses and workers, so that these temporary shutdowns – and job losses – don’t become permanent ones.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.