New business owners who don't qualify for COVID-19 aid petition Ottawa for help

Small-business owners in B.C. who opened their doors for the first timein 2020 thereby making them ineligible for COVID-19 government support are petitioning the federal government to help them keep those doors open.

Over 900 people across Canada, including 659 from B.C., have signed an online petition asking Ottawa to support new hospitality businesses that are excluded from the emergency wage, rent subsidy and emergency business loan programs because they did not earn revenue in 2019.

Signatories are arguing that the programs should be adjusted to include businessesthat can provethey had non-reversible commitments to a project.

These commitments include having signeda long-term lease, or havinginvested or re-invested more than $100,000 in the business before June 2020.

Peter Wood, owner of the the Victoriabrunch cafeBear and Joey,said he has had to reduce staff hours and let some employees go altogether because he simply can't afford to keep them on the payroll.

The business, which opened in May 2020, is operating at what he says is about 40 per cent of its potential because of reduced seating capacity.

The lack of government support is "a really tough pill to swallow," saidWood on CBC's All Points West.

The petition was started by Scarlet Osborne, owner of El Segundo restaurant in Sechelt, B.C., and has been certified byWest VancouverSunshine CoastSea to Sky Country Liberal MP Patrick Weiler.

As of March 1, according to its status online, the petitionhas yet to be tabled in the House of Commons.

Wood said he's spoken to a number of provincial and federal ministers and is cautiously optimistic help may be on the way.

"I think something will come of it, we just don't know when," he said.

According to CHEK News, Bear and Joey was closed temporarily in September after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.

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LISTEN | Victoria restaurateur Peter Wood on petitioning Ottawa for policy change: