Mayor backs freeze on commercial rent
Tory also announces CaféTO plan to make opening patios easier
Calls on the province to freeze commercial evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic gathered momentum on Thursday, with Mayor John Tory lending support to the idea.
“I saw Premier Ford saying he’s ready to play hardball on this. Well I’m on his team,” said Tory at a press conference held to announce a new city initiative to help the local restaurant industry.
“I think the time for hardball has come.”
Tory was responding to concerns over the number of landlords who have taken advantage of the federal Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) program, which allows landlords to apply for government funds to cover half of rent payments for small businesses, up to $50,000 a month. Under the program, tenants pay 25 per cent of their rent and landlords forfeit the remaining 25 per cent. The program has not been widely taken up by landlords, at a time when small businesses are struggling to pay rent as a result of the COVID-19 shutdown that began in mid-March.
A survey released on Thursday by Coun. Paula Fletcher’s office found that 61 per cent of businesses who qualify say their landlord has not applied for the rent assistance program.
The survey also found that as many as 78 per cent of business owners contacted in Toronto, Ottawa and Guelph do not think they will make enough money to cover rent in July.
That’s up from 50 per cent who said they couldn’t make all of rent in April; 63 per cent in May and 72 per cent in June who said they would not make all of June’s rent.
In all, 427 small businesses and 92 landlords took part in the survey, which was co-ordinated by the Broadview-Danforth Business Improvement Area (BIA) and the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA).
The problem is widespread and includes businesses on Main Street in small towns and cities across Ontario, said Marty Williams, executive director of the Downtown Guelph BIA and vice-president of the Ontario BIA Association, speaking at a virtual press conference held by Fletcher (Ward 14 TorontoDanforth).
“We are as frustrated with this federal program as anybody in big cities,” he said, although he cautioned against demonizing landlords.
A significant problem is that the application process is exceedingly complex, said Mark Kaluski, chair of the Ottawa Coalition of BIAs, who is himself a landlord and has applied for the program.
“The biggest concern is, we don’t know how long this is going to last,” said Kaluski. “To be fair to landlords, we don’t know if this is a three-month problem or if this program needs to be extended for another year.”
The new city initiative announced Thursday by Tory, called CaféTO, will make it easier for restaurants and bar owners to open and expand patios onto sidewalks, curb lanes and parklets, to provide more space for social distancing and to generate more summer revenue for businesses that have been hard hit by the lockdown.
The patio application and permitting process will be expedited, and the city will look at whether some of the related fees should be waived in order to help struggling businesses.