Workers at an ice cream shop wear face masks to curb the spread of COVID-19 at Steveston Village, in Richmond, B.C., on Jan. 10, 2021.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
The B.C. government promised in September that relief was finally on the way for small- and medium-sized businesses struggling due to the pandemic. To date, just $10-million of the promised $345-million aid package has been delivered.
Businesses - especially in hospitality and tourism - have been begging for assistance since restrictions designed to limit the spread of COVID-19 began in the province last March. The money was approved by the legislature that month, but the program details were not announced until September. The criteria for applying were posted on Oct. 9, but the snap election derailed the rollout. By the time the dust settled and a new cabinet minister was appointed to deal with the mess, it was almost the end of 2020.
“After three months of the program, we had just over 1,000 applications come in,” Ravi Kahlon, Minister for Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation, said in an interview. “So we made changes to the program on Dec. 21 to make it more flexible, and since then we’ve had over 4,000 new applications come in.”
With the new applications, he calculates that a total of $65-million will be allocated.
Mr. Kahlon says that is a success and he hopes to see more applications over the next few weeks. “We’ve seen a dramatic increase in applications just over the last few weeks, which is a positive sign and so we’re going to continue to encourage businesses to apply,” he said.
To that end, Mr. Kahlon, is featured in a social media campaign, strolling down a colourful alley packed with small shops, explaining how his government wants to hand out cash to help such operations weather the COVID-driven economic storm. Eligible businesses will receive between $10,000 and $30,000 in a non-repayable grant, with eligible tourism-related business receiving up to $15,000 on top of the base grant - no obligation to repay.
If this lifeline was easy to catch, the program would have been fully subscribed by now.
Even after Mr. Kahlon’s amendments, the program is too onerous and restrictive to help those who need it, business leaders say. For example, tourism businesses need to have been operating for 18 months before March 1, 2020, to be eligible, which leaves new endeavours to flounder. Applicants must have experienced revenue losses of at least 70 per cent at some point during March or April, 2020 - which rules out most seasonal tourism operations that typically don’t start each year until May. Even those small businesses that are eligible say they struggled with the paperwork.
A floating structure that was home to a seafood restaurant which closed, is seen for sale at Steveston Village, in Richmond, B.C., on Jan. 10, 2021.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Nancy Small, CEO of Tourism Richmond, said her members don’t need to be told the program is there. They need help accessing it.
“We’ve known about the money since Sept. 17. There are a number of challenges, and awareness is not one of them,” she said. “It continues to be technically prohibitive for people who don’t have the resources, when they are struggling to hang on. This is the tragedy, the money is there, businesses desperately need liquidity, and they are not getting it.”
On Friday, the province announced its plans for delivering the COVID-19 vaccine to 4.3 million residents. At best, that means some travel within B.C. will likely be allowed by the summer, while restrictions on gatherings might be lifted in the fall.
For much of the province’s tourism and hospitality businesses, international travel, convention bookings and cruise ships have been a mainstay. Those revenue streams dried up last March and there is no strong prospect of them returning this year. “Vaccines are being rolled out, but we are looking at a year ahead that will be similar to 2020,” Ms. Small said. “That means by the time the fall rolls around, we are looking at a rebuild needed for our industry.”
Premier John Horgan told reporters on Friday that planning for the next steps is under way. “Our visitor economy is critical to every corner of B.C.” He said his government is working with the industries to try and find the best way for the province “to keep them going until we can once again welcome people not just from across Canada, but from around the world, to come back to B.C.”
The botched rollout of the pandemic relief grants has left Mr. Kahlon with $280-million sloshing around right now that could be put toward that effort. What he doesn’t have is a lot of time to figure it out. If he doesn’t find a way to use up the funds before the end of the fiscal year, on March 31, any unspent money will be clawed back by the treasury. And that won’t help the industry at all.
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