‘We’re not talking about big money here’
Former Hamilton Farmers’ Market board chair frustrated by lack of support from the city
The former chair of the Hamilton Farmers’ Market board worries its eateries will be wiped out by COVID-19 without city support.
Many prepared food vendors aren’t signing 2021 contracts, says Eric Miller, who resigned as chair earlier this month.
“I fear that the prepared food scene in the market is going to look like how it was six years ago when I started on the board, which is all empty, and that’s shocking.”
Miller says he left his volunteer post out of frustration after failed efforts to gain rent relief from the city amid a sharp downturn in customers during the pandemic.
“Frustration that I don’t want to be a volunteer having to manage a crisis that was preventable at a very minor cost to the city.”
The market board asked the city to match a federal program that offers 75 per cent rent relief for business operators. The Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance initiative isn’t available to vendors because the market has a municipal landlord.
Miller argues the city could have covered the $170,000 in relief for six months of rent for 50-odd vendors through market reserve funds or by forgoing a second governance study budgeted at $75,000.
“That’s the part that astounds me and astounds others, too. Again, the question of why comes up. We’re not talking about big money here.”
Councillors have said little publicly about why they turned down the request for vendor rent relief late last year. But Coun. Esther Pauls, who sits on the board and has advocated for city assistance, says the issue boils down to “bonusing.”
Provincial legislation bars municipalities from offering “bonuses” that give businesses unfair advantages over competitors.
Pauls, however, hopes the city can find a way to support the vendors. “I think we’re trying to figure out a way around this,” she said Thursday. She says only 26 of 45 vendors left have signed the 2021 contract.
“Apparently, the vendors said to each other, ‘Let’s not sign any contract,’ and we cannot do that.”
Council is scheduling an emergency meeting Monday to hash out the vendor issue and the market’s woes, specifically the contract issue.
A big bone of contention is the city’s retroactive collection of 75 per cent of stall fees from April, May and June.
In June, vendors were invoiced for 25 per cent of rates with the expectation that the city would provide rent relief akin to the federal program. Instead, the city is offering stallholders a “deferral option” of spreading payment of those owed fees throughout the year.
“We understand that this ... may not be welcome news, and it is not the outcome the board had advocated for ...,” market manager Bill Slowka wrote in a Dec. 18 memo to vendors.
Josie Rudderham, co-owner of Cake & Loaf Bakery, says she and her business partner had “no faith” the city would come through with support when they pulled out of the market in July after four years.
“We couldn’t stay and pay $1,100 a month, and kind of be pretty sure that something like this might happen in the end.”
Rudderham, who operates a location on Dundurn Street South, suggested the outlook for remaining vendors is bleak. “Rent relief is like the least that should be done for them.”
During a budget presentation Thursday, board treasurer Gordon Albini described the market’s pandemic-related financial woes as dire.
Albini said lockdowns in 2020 “imposed hardships on market businesses and customers.”
Weekly visits dropped from about 20,000 before the pandemic hit to below 5,000.
That same bleak landscape continues in 2021, Albini added. “Our vendors have been hard hit and struggling.”
The vacancy rate has risen to about 19 per cent, or 11 stalls, he noted in presenting a “shoestring” budget calling for a two per cent increase, or $2,256 more for a total of $115,000 levy dollars. The expected stall revenue is $438,000 for 2021, down from last year’s actual revenue of $509,000.
Albini urged councillors to “explore opportunities” to provide vendors “with the support that they need during these unprecedented times.”
Coun. Jason Farr said the city has offered “pretty significant leniencies” for the taxi industry and $10,000 boosts to business improvement areas during the pandemic. Farr’s colleagues supported his motion to refer a $30,000 bump from a city reserve for market promotion initiatives for consideration in upcoming budget deliberations.
That is an eligible funding option for the city, finance chief Mike Zegarac noted.
“This doesn’t stop here,” said Farr, whose Ward 2 includes the market. He added “robust” discussions ahead could further address concerns, beyond a shortfall in advertising dollars.
Mayor Fred Eisenberger assured that “we all care” about the market. He suggested councillors and staff form a working group to look for a “longer-term solution” rather than “one-off solutions.”