The Town of Essex council held a meeting with small business owners January 18th at 4:30. The result of that meeting was the following letter below was drafted and sent to government officials. If you want to see the full meeting it is on You Tube under Essex Ontario Special Council Meeting January 18th. Our small businesses continue to face discrimination and need our support more than ever. Let the provincial government know that throwing money at our small businesses is just a band-aid. Its time to stand up for small businesses. Reach out to me if you are ready to help.
January 26, 2021
TO: The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca
Honourable Doug Ford
Premier of Ontario
Legislative Building, Queen’s Park
Toronto, ON M7H 1A1
premier@ontario.ca
And To: Taras Natyshak, M.P.P. (Hand delivered by Mayor Snively)
Chris Lewis, M.P. (Hand delivered by Mayor Snively)
Re: Impacts of COVID-19 Restrictions on Residents and Small Business Owners
Dear Premier Ford and Prime Minister Trudeau,
At its Special Meeting on Monday, January 18, Council for the Town of Essex received presentations from a number of local residents and small business owners who have been impacted by the current COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent restrictions. As directed by Town Council we are writing this letter to convey these concerns and to call on both levels of government to take immediate steps to mitigate the damage that COVID-19 continues to inflict on both our residents and our business community.
Like many small businesses, the presenters at this meeting indicated their frustration with the perceived unequal and inconsistent impacts of restrictions and lockdowns on small, locally-owned businesses. While local large box businesses such as the Costcos and WalMarts have remained opened as “essential services,” these large, multinational chains, continue to be allowed to sell the same “non-essential” goods that small businesses cannot. While big box stores reap the benefits of increased traffic due to shuttered downtown stores, our small businesses, whose roots connect to the core of every community in Ontario, continue to suffer and/or fade away. This is a critical time for small business survival and it is absolutely vital that our federal and provincial governments give small businesses the same opportunity to operate and survive that it has provided to those larger, multi-national corporations.
View full document: https://sherrybondy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Impact-of-Lockdowns-Restrictions-on-Small-Business.pdf