CORONA (4) BUSINESS AND SHOPS
MALLOUGH: Made-in-Ontario retail plan needed to save our communities' souls
The small business community has done everything this government has asked of them to help keep Canadians safe in Ontario. Health and safety plans for reopening? OK. Hand sanitizer at the door? No problem. Masks in stores? Done. Limit customers in-store? On it.
The premier has often remarked that we as Ontarians are all in this together, and small businesses did their part.
Their reward for it all — from the retailer who invested hundreds of dollars in plexiglass barriers to the restaurants that invested thousands into space heaters and ventilation — was to be shutdown. To once again shoulder the burden for society. Alone.
I have listened over the last few days as small business owners struggle to comprehend the quagmire that is the essential businesses list. I have heard the frustration, the exasperation, the realization and the outright anger as they grasp the truth of it: That giving big box stores the advantage is a feature, not a bug.
AdvertisementArticle content continuedIf having to close during the most important shopping season of the year — for many businesses perhaps the most important since they opened — is not a bitter enough pill, being forced to watch as the Walmart across the street or the Costco down the road are open to sell the exact same goods surely is.
Their reward for it all — from the retailer who invested hundreds of dollars in plexiglass barriers to the restaurants that invested thousands into space heaters and ventilation — was to be shutdown. To once again shoulder the burden for society. Alone.
I have listened over the last few days as small business owners struggle to comprehend the quagmire that is the essential businesses list. I have heard the frustration, the exasperation, the realization and the outright anger as they grasp the truth of it: That giving big box stores the advantage is a feature, not a bug.
AdvertisementArticle content continuedIf having to close during the most important shopping season of the year — for many businesses perhaps the most important since they opened — is not a bitter enough pill, being forced to watch as the Walmart across the street or the Costco down the road are open to sell the exact same goods surely is.
Somehow, in its infinite wisdom, our government has decided that buying a book, or a TV or a necklace is safer in a big box store with hundreds of other customers than at your local bookshop, electronics store or jeweler.
If you’re having trouble wrapping your head around that, imagine being the owner of one of those stores.
While having access to curbside pickup this time around is an improvement from the spring measures, the reality is that most small businesses do not have the digital infrastructure or marketing capacity to make it a viable replacement to in-store shopping. Most local stores will see few, if any, curbside customers as people opt for Amazon.
The sad result will be more locks on doors and papered-over windows. Not just a loss of a business owner’s life work — not just a loss of employment, nor tax dollars. It’s a loss of community. A loss of support for local charities. One less sponsor on the back of our kids’ hockey jerseys.
If you’re having trouble wrapping your head around that, imagine being the owner of one of those stores.
While having access to curbside pickup this time around is an improvement from the spring measures, the reality is that most small businesses do not have the digital infrastructure or marketing capacity to make it a viable replacement to in-store shopping. Most local stores will see few, if any, curbside customers as people opt for Amazon.
The sad result will be more locks on doors and papered-over windows. Not just a loss of a business owner’s life work — not just a loss of employment, nor tax dollars. It’s a loss of community. A loss of support for local charities. One less sponsor on the back of our kids’ hockey jerseys.
Consider any one of Toronto’s neighbourhoods:
From Queen West, to Kensington Market, Chinatown to Little Italy, Bloor Village, Ossington, Midtown, Leslieville, Greektown, Little Jamaica and The Annex .
Our small businesses define our communities.
That’s what’s at risk with the lockdowns. The very fabric of the souls of our communities.
From Queen West, to Kensington Market, Chinatown to Little Italy, Bloor Village, Ossington, Midtown, Leslieville, Greektown, Little Jamaica and The Annex .
Our small businesses define our communities.
That’s what’s at risk with the lockdowns. The very fabric of the souls of our communities.
Premier Doug Ford, it’s not too late to reverse course.
To save the holiday season and thousands of small businesses with it.
You can do more than acknowledge the current situation is unfair.
You can do something about it.
We are proposing a made-in-Ontario retail plan.
One that still promotes curbside pickup and delivery but allows people to shop in-store.
A plan that gives small retailers that vital lifeline at the time when they need it most.
A plan to keep our Main Streets alive.
If we are all in this together, we urge you to adopt it.
Let’s show the true Ontario spirit this holiday season and save our local businesses.
— Ryan Mallough is a director of provincial affairs, Ontario, at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB)
To save the holiday season and thousands of small businesses with it.
You can do more than acknowledge the current situation is unfair.
You can do something about it.
We are proposing a made-in-Ontario retail plan.
One that still promotes curbside pickup and delivery but allows people to shop in-store.
A plan that gives small retailers that vital lifeline at the time when they need it most.
A plan to keep our Main Streets alive.
If we are all in this together, we urge you to adopt it.
Let’s show the true Ontario spirit this holiday season and save our local businesses.
— Ryan Mallough is a director of provincial affairs, Ontario, at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB)
COMMENTS
- Chris Rutledge The health authorities were desperate to come up with something that looked like a response to Covid spread. So they kill off small businesses (only a few people in the store) to hand a retail monopoly to the big box stores (hundreds of people in the store). This shameful strategy is supposed to be accepted as science based. These health experts are not, in fact, particularly competent. Their skill is limited: their destructive power enormous.
1 REPLY 4 0
SHARE
FLAG- Peter Frost
Reply to Chris Rutledge And all based on zero empirical data that small business is any significant vector for this disease. Doug Ford and his cabal of medical idiots are just a one trick pony. Lockdown! Lockdown! Lockdown!. So many months to come up with a more nuanced response from the first round, and... Nothing. People still dying by the score in Long Term Care facilities for which these actions do nothing. This is an absolute national disgrace. SHAME SHAME SHAME on you all.
4 0
SHARE
FLAG
- Peter Frost
- CF
Charles Finlay Why is Ford such a patsy for the so-called "medical experts"? If they actually had any medical knowledge they would be practicing physicians, not political appointees. There is zero doubt that we are being lied to big-time, if only by omission. 159 in ICU in a province with 15,000,000 is hardly a crisis. The crises are the destruction of businesses, lives and health of all the non-covid sufferers.
1 REPLY 7 0
SHARE
FLAG- CR
Chris Rutledge
Reply to Charles Finlay They are civil service bureaucrats who have a medical degree. Salaried civil servants.
- CR
CORONA (4)
