If the pandemic wasn’t enough to hit local businesses hard, the large number of unmasked protesters blocking roads will. Now, local businesses are seeking financial assistance from the government as the protests against Canada’s pandemic rules enter their third week in the city of Ottawa.
Like many other downtown businesses, the busy mall of Rideau Centre closed on Jan. 29 over growing health and safety concerns, resulting in an estimated loss of $3 million in sales per day, according to the Retail Council of Canada. Unmasked protesters continue to move across the streets even as Ottawa police threaten charges and arrests.
"[Businesses] are being further burdened because of these demonstrations, many of them having to completely close," Sueling Ching, chief executive officer of the Ottawa Board of Trade, told CBC News. "There are no programs in place to support them and this is through no fault of their own."
Michelle Groulx, executive director of the Ottawa Coalition of Business Improvement Areas, shared Ching’s sentiment, saying the protests are only kicking an already beaten-down economy: "Every single day that revenue is lost is a missed opportunity to pay back mounting debts incurred since the pandemic began.”
Initially, the convoy protest was meant to oppose mandatory vaccination for cross-border truckers but has since evolved to include a range of opposition to COVID-19 public health measures – and some of the organizers maintain they won't leave until all pandemic rules across Canada end.
As such, Groulx and Ching want the municipal, provincial and federal governments to swoop in and provide urgent financial assistance for businesses in the meantime. But although governments have claimed to be receptive to the proposition, they have yet to offer any help as requested.
