{"id":28310,"date":"2020-12-19T10:40:44","date_gmt":"2020-12-19T10:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ceo-na.com\/?p=28310"},"modified":"2020-12-19T17:23:56","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T17:23:56","slug":"canadian-small-retailers-push-back-against-lockdown-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/news\/canadian-small-retailers-push-back-against-lockdown-policy\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

The CFIB\u00a0is\u00a0calling on the Ontario government to tweak the rules.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Small businesses\u00a0in Toronto and Peel Region\u00a0are arguing that\u2019s it unfair they should be closed for in-person shopping during the pandemic while big-box stores can sell all manner of goods if they happen to also sell essential products such as\u00a0groceries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Retailers considered non-essential in Ontario\u2019s\u00a0COVID-19-ravaged areas were forced to shut their doors Monday to comply with a new lockdown policy, just as the already hard-hit sector enters the holiday shopping season.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business\u00a0(CFIB) is\u00a0calling on the Ontario government to tweak the rules so that small businesses can serve up to three in-person customers at once and salvage some earnings at the end of such a difficult year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked to explain why big-box retailers aren’t restricted to selling just the goods deemed essential, as they are in provinces such as Manitoba, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday that doing so\u00a0\u201cwould be a logistical nightmare.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey have essential items spread out throughout their whole store, and then on top of that\u00a0how do they monitor it, restrict people from going in there?\u201d Ford said yesterday. \u201cAnd as for Manitoba, after speaking with the CEO of Walmart\u00a0Canada, it\u2019s creating massive problems out there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked about business closures during a news conference Monday, Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland\u00a0pointed to government efforts to support small businesses including a new rent subsidy paid directly to tenants\u2014with extra funds for those impacted by new\u00a0lockdown measures\u2014as well as the extension of an existing wage subsidy program.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a victory for small business owners who are struggling right now to pay the rent and cover bills, and especially for those who are required to close their doors or significantly restrict their operations because of a public health order,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us know now that there is light at the end of the tunnel with safe and effective vaccines on the way. It would be so tragic for any viable business \u2026 to have made its way through most of the pandemic and then to falter just now as the end is in sight.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet many are unconvinced. Dan Kelly, president and CEO of CFIB,\u00a0told CBC Wednesday that viable small businesses going under is exactly what\u2019s likely to happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike March and April lockdowns,\u00a0this is happening for retailers in their busiest season, at the time where they make all of their money,\u201d he posited. \u201cIf retailers miss out on four\u00a0weeks in late November [and] early December, they\u2019re done\u2026 We\u2019re already estimating one\u00a0in seven\u00a0small businesses will permanently close as a result of COVID-19.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat number could even go higher in places like Manitoba, Toronto and Peel, where there are broad retail lockdowns now once again.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The CFIB\u00a0is\u00a0calling on the Ontario government to tweak the rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":28316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1338],"tags":[529,99,1385,69],"class_list":["post-28310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-canada","tag-ceo","tag-ceo-northam","tag-retail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28310"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28511,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28310\/revisions\/28511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}