Advocates urge measures to boost downtowns across country

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This article was published 07/11/2023 (693 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kate Fenske trekked to Ottawa with a couple of goals.

One, get a looming deadline on pandemic-era federal loans for businesses pushed back. Two, get more funding for downtowns — plural, not just Winnipeg’s.

“Some of the things we’re seeing in downtown Winnipeg, it’s not unique,” said Fenske, CEO of Downtown Winnipeg BIZ, via phone call.

Members of International Downtown Association Canada — which represents the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ and more than 500 business improvement zones — convened on Parliament Hill Monday, calling for measures to rejuvenate downtowns across the country.

“This isn’t about politics, this is about having everybody work together,” said Fenske, who also chairs IDA Canada. “We know that downtown is so important.”

Storefront vacancy rates climbed during the pandemic.

Nearly one-third of downtown Winnipeg storefronts are empty. It’s a sharp increase from the vacancy rates of Toronto and Halifax — at 14 and 13 per cent, respectively — but even so, all downtowns are feeling the pressure, Fenske noted.

Recovery in the Prairies has been “more challenging” because there are fewer residents than big metropolises, she added.

“We do have a lot of government offices where workers have not returned,” she said. “We don’t have the same residential density that other cities have, and so, we do need to do some extra work and make sure there’s some investment.”

A key help would be pushing back the repayment deadline for Canada Emergency Business Account loans, Fenske said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ottawa shelled out CEBA loans of up to $60,000 to keep businesses afloat.

If companies pay by a deadline, they’ll have the latter third forgiven. The deadline has been pushed back — the latest being an 18-day extension — and now sits at Jan. 18, 2024.

“That just does not give businesses that are struggling enough time to bounce back,” said Fenske. “This is something that the federal government, we feel, can easily do to help businesses across Canada.”

More than 20 IDA Canada delegates joined her in Ottawa to speak to federal politicians. Their calls come after provincial and territorial leaders, including Premier Wab Kinew, insisted upon a deadline extension.

Like the premiers, business improvement zones are asking for an extension to the end of 2024.

Nick Van Seggelen is working with his bank to pay back his CEBA loan on time. For some, that means taking out another loan to earn the CEBA forgivable portion.

“I think that’s the wrong steps to be helping the economy get back on its feet, to be saddling small businesses that are already struggling (with) another loan to be repaying with interest,” Van Seggelen said.

Meantime, he’s still not seeing foot traffic at Bodegoes, his Exchange District restaurant, return to pre-pandemic regularity.

“We could be sitting here twiddling our thumbs one day, and then the next day working our tails off trying to keep up,” he said. “It’s so inconsistent.”

More people downtown would help business, he added.

A CEBA loan extension is “absolutely essential,” stated Greg Tonn, owner of record shop Into the Music.

He isn’t fretting about his business — it saw an increase in sales during the pandemic and is on track to pay its loan, he said.

However, he fears for his entrepreneurial peers.

“Even if their business is back to normal, they’re not generating $30,000 or $40,000 extra dollars in a year to save up to repay that loan,” he said. “It’s a big deal.”

No deadline extension could mean local businesses shutting their doors permanently, he added.

The deadline exists on March 28, 2024 for some small businesses who make refinancing applications with their banks.

Businesses who don’t meet the early 2024 deadlines will have until the end of 2026 to pay their full loan.

“The bottom line is that, if you are a small business and do not currently have the funds to repay your CEBA loan, you now have three years to repay it in full,” Katherine Cuplinskas, a press secretary for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, wrote in a statement.

She did not answer whether the government has plans to further extend the loan’s forgivable portion.

In Manitoba, 23,424 businesses were approved for a CEBA loan.

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Fenske and her counterparts are also calling for $500 million annually from Ottawa for downtown revitalization.

The money, which would be divvied up across the country through federal agencies like PrairiesCan, could be a “collaborative approach” towards downtowns, Fenske said.

“When we look at Winnipeg, we have missing trees, we have crumbling sidewalks,” she explained. “We need more greenspaces and parks.”

Thriving downtowns attract talent and drive economic activity, she added.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com

Gabrielle Piché
Reporter

Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle.

Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.