Sudbury MPP Jamie West and Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas received many calls throughout the pandemic from small business owners who were experiencing financial hardship and struggling to get by under COVID-19 restrictions, with the number of calls increasing in January 2021.
The two met with local business owners yesterday to talk about the difficulties they faced with the Ontario Small Business Support Grant program.
West says the business owners expressed various concerns including the paperwork involved, approval process, and delivery of funds.
Gelinas says some of them were forced to close, then turned down for the funding with no process in place to appeal the decision.
The two will be asking the Ford government to host a review of the process and allow for appeals, especially if the fourth or subsequent waves of the pandemic continue to affect businesses.
Both MPP offices immediately looked into the situation, made inquiries with the program and the Ministries responsible for it, and wrote letters to the Ministers demanding action only to hit roadblocks over, and over, again. They asked for a process to help their constituents navigate the program and get answers, which was not provided. On June 30th, MPP West personally called the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trades in an attempt to assist several constituents with their application issues. MPP West left a message, and to date has never been informed that his inquiry was received.
There were, and continue to be, so many problems with this program. It started with many small businesses being excluded from the initial list as eligible to receive help, even though they were forced to close by the government. Others met the eligibility requirements for the grant, but their applications were denied and they were unable to get through to the Support Centre. If they were able to connect with the Support Centre no one could answer their questions, no one had any answers. When businesses questioned the government’s decision to deny their application, there was no process to appeal that decision.
If they were one of the lucky businesses whose application was approved, then often the payment did not follow. Trying to find out why, or when, they could expect the needed funding was next to impossible. If they got through and the program asked them to submit more information, then they waited 6 weeks or more for a reply or to find out if they were approved after submitting the information the program asked them for. Many businesses waited 8 months – from the time when they applied to when they received the funds. For many businesses this 8 months delay meant the death of their business, of the livelihood of their dream.
“Fixed expenses don’t just disappear or can be put on hold and the Grant was meant to provide a bridge over the 6 months (from Dec 26th, 2020 to July 6th, 2021) when my business was mandated to be closed for public health reasons. Unfortunately, of the $40,000 promised only $20,000 was provided, and to add insult to injury, it came on June 28th, 2021, by which time I had weathered close to the full 6 months without generating any revenue. This is certainly a tough way to earn a living” Christianna Burke – Glow Hair Studio (Sudbury).
“For us, this is the Ontario No Support Grant. I have never ever dealt with a government department (or non-government) where no one can answer even the most basic question, and everyone simply says wait for the email…It’s been seven months plus at this point” Rob Walliser – Pet Valu (Sudbury and Chelmsford).
“These business owners did nothing wrong. They were ordered to shut down by the provincial government. The government has a responsibility to help those small businesses and they failed,” said MPP Gélinas. “This is not fair. These small businesses followed the rules and should have had access to desperately needed funds to stay afloat”.
“Many of our small businesses still have not been able to resolve their applications or secure funding. As we face a possible 4th wave of COVID-19, the government has paused the exit to the ‘Roadmap to Reopen Ontario’ and we all face uncertainty of future forced closures and capacity restrictions. Our small businesses still need help. We are calling on the government to fix the Ontario Small Business Support Grant Program and commit the resources necessary to get through the applications and issue funding to struggling businesses now,” said MPP West.