Good Afternoon All,
Today is May 16th and it is the day that landlords are able to lock commercial tenants out if arrangements for overdue rent have not been made. I'm hoping that, while we are all still waiting for further government assistance in this area, businesses and landlords have been able to discuss their options.
In his briefing today, the PM once again made no mention of the CECRA program. I went back through my daily notes and it was on April 14/20 that the PM announced that a rent relief program would be coming for businesses and landlords; it was April 22/20 that the PM announced the broad components of the program; and today, 33 days since April 14. there has been no further information and no indication of when this program will be available. Today the PM stated that "he wants businesses to have confidence that the government will be there for them". I think I'm safe in saying that businesses across Canadian don't have that confidence.
In addition to the PM not saying anything about the CECRA, Premier Ford has also not mentioned a word about this program. The CECRA is a partnership program between the Feds and each Province. So where is Premier Ford's voice on this?
This week our BIA participated in two media conferences pushing for some movement on the rent relief issues and for a temporary moratorium on commercial evictions until the rent relief program can be sorted out. The first was held this past Tuesday by Councillor Fletcher and she was joined by MPP Peter Tabuns, our BIA members Jennifer Jones (Joy of Dance Centre), Ginger Robertson (The Edmund Burke and Off The Hook) and BIA Board Treasurer Philip Kocev (iPro Realty). In this session we presented the results of the second city-wide survey of businesses and landlords.
Yesterday Andrea Horwath, Leader of the NDP Party and Ontario's official Opposition Party, held a media conference again on the same issues (rent relief and evictions). Joining her was our MPP Peter Tabuns, BIA members Nathan Hynes (The Auld Spot Pub), Ginger Robertson (Edmund Burke and Off The Hook) and Philip Kocev (iPro Realty). For those who weren't able to watch it live streamed I've included a link below and encourage you to take a few minutes to watch. And then, I encourage you to click on the second link - it is a post conference article from the Canadian Press and contains Premier Ford's comments on the rent issues facing both commercial tenants and landlords. To say his comments are disappointing would be an understatement. In fact it's quite shocking how uninformed he seems to be on these issues.
So where does this leave us? Well I'm going to sound like a broken record but..... we need our Federal and Provincial government reps to keep stepping up and pushing to get this mess sorted out - 33 days and still waiting - that's truly unacceptable.
Today a reporter asked the PM about the Cities' request for financial help. The answer was that the Feds will work with the Provinces in order to help them help their cities financially. Good luck on that - if the CECRA is any indication then the cities are in for a tough time.
Here are the links for yesterday's media conference and the subsequent CP article: