We are asking you to please help small businesses thrive. Please help them survive. We call on you to support us as we request Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the Government of Ontario and the Chief Medical Officer of Health to take immediate steps to protect local businesses by:

  1. ensuring any closure orders due to COVID-19 maximize the ability of small businesses to continue to operate;

  2. utilizing tools such as restrictions on numbers of customers based on physical space, mask use and social distancing (rather than arbitrary definitions of ‘essential goods or services’ or arbitrary numbers of customers) to determine how businesses can continue to operate.

  3. limiting the definitions of ‘essential goods or services’ as narrowly as possible to ensure that small businesses may continue to operate. and

  4. applying any definition of ‘essential goods or services’ to all businesses, including big box retail, and forbidding big box or other department store models from selling any goods or services which cannot be sold by small retail or specialty stores.

The facts surrounding the monumental increases in profits enjoyed by big box stores are supported by major media and, most important, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

We ask that you do as Manitoba has done, as well as other municipalities around the country, and give small businesses a fighting chance – they give more than any other sector, and stand to lose more than any other sector.

Please see our petition here: Fairness for Ontario Small Businesses During COVID Crisis

Sincerely,

Brian Yeomans Chair