We know that Main Street is struggling. If we can’t fix the rent issue, we’re going to see a lot of otherwise healthy businesses go down over it.

Laura Jones, executive vice-president and chief strategic officer at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, on rent relief for those hit hard by the lockdown.

Just what will it take to get to the point where businesses are rehiring staff who have been laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Business leaders and economists say that at this point, it’s less about financial aid packages from government and more about creating an atmosphere where consumers and employees once again feel safe.

They say that to get to a place where more businesses are allowed to reopen and wanting to rehire, and where more people want to come back to work, provincial governments must be doing more to shore up confidence by expanding testing and contact tracing for the virus.

“Now it’s not about incentivizing businesses, it’s about incentivizing customers and workers, and that’s not a financial problem. It’s a health problem, it’s a confidence problem,” said David Macdonald, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

“Confidence is the foundation of a capitalist economy and we don’t have that right now.”

The president and CEO of the Toronto Region Board of Trade said that after 11

weeks of being told the safest place to be is at home, the next few weeks will have to focus on getting people to feel comfortable again.

“Organizations like ours are looking at what are the tools and programs we can put in the hands of businesses to help them demonstrate to consumers and their employees that they’re following protocols, that they’re staying current on things, so that people can start to think about it being safe to go out again,” said Jan De Silva.

The federal government provided further details Wednesday on some of its financial assistance programs to businesses.

Applications opened this week for its large employer loan program, in which the government said it would provide bridge funding of at least $60 million to large companies earning more than $300 million annually in revenues and which have been unable to secure funding through conventional means.

Publicly traded companies, or any of their private subsidiaries, will have to issue warrants giving the government the option of purchasing shares worth 15 per cent of the loan, or receiving the equivalent in cash. Privately held companies will pay the same in fees, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said on Wednesday.

“The idea behind the warrant is to make sure that if the firm does well that Canadians, and Canadian taxpayers, share in that upside,” he said.

Recipients would also have to agree to limits on executive compensation, dividend payments and share buybacks, as well as show they are contributing to the Liberal government’s goal of reducing greenhousegas emissions.

Interest will be set at five per cent in the first year, rising to eight per cent in the second year, and two per cent annually thereafter.

It’s not expected that that program would lead to rehiring, said Rocco Rossi, president and

CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

“That is a program just to keep people afloat and give them liquidity, that’s not going to lead to rehiring unless there’s a market for their goods or services,” he said.

Rossi echoed Macdonald’s sentiment that what the economy needs to get up and running again is an expansion in testing, greater contact tracing and more access to personal protective equipment.

“So long as people have fear around returning to work, that definitely goes into the equation,” he said.

“I’m a firm believer that at the end of the day, the vast majority of people want to work, they want the dignity of earning their pay.”

The federal government also announced Wednesday that applications will open next Monday for its commercial rent relief assistance program for businesses struggling to pay the rent.

Under the program, property owners would receive forgivable loans to cover 50 per cent of the rent for April, May and June — the loans are forgiven if the owner agrees to lower the rent by at least 75 per cent. The tenant business would pay the remaining 25 per cent.

The program is reliant on landlords applying for it and businesses have been urging the government to overhaul it. They’ve complained that their landlords have already told them they won’t be applying for the program, threatening the very existence of some businesses.

“We know that Main Street is struggling; if we can’t fix the rent issue, we’re going to see a lot of otherwise healthy businesses go down over it,” said Laura Jones, executive vicepresident and chief strategic officer at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Wednesday’s announcement followed a plea Tuesday by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to businesses to apply for his government’s wage subsidy program, which covers 75 per cent of a person’s wages, up to $847 a week. The government extended the subsidy’s expiration date from June to the end of August.

Less than $3.4 billion of the program’s original $73-billion budget was paid out as of May11.

That plea followed news over the weekend that Air Canada, which has been using the wage subsidy, would be laying off at least half of its 38,000 employees by June 7. The airline has said that it doesn’t anticipate its business to return to normal any time soon.

Rossi said it’s a perfect example of how the challenges of rehiring, in some cases, can’t simply be solved by government financial assistance.

“If your sector has disappeared, how can you rehire?” he said.

Less than $3.4 billion of the program’s original $73-billion budget was paid out as of May 11