Extend emergency biz aid, critics urge

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This article was published 06/05/2021 (1855 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opposition critics are pleading with the province to extend or expand emergency assistance for struggling Manitoba businesses during the third wave.

“By ordering businesses to close or even to operate at 25 per cent, the Pallister government is basically ordering people to go broke,” said Dougald Lamont, MLA for St. Boniface and Manitoba’s Liberal party leader, during a scrum with reporters Wednesday. “There is no scenario where that is acceptable.”

Under COVID-19 restrictions that came into effect last week and will remain in place until May 26, most storefronts are allowed to be open but with stringent visitor or customer limits.

At a virtual event hosted by the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce Tuesday, Economic Development and Jobs Minister Ralph Eichler was asked if the Tory government will be expanding or extending support for businesses struggling because of those public-health rules.

“We have $300 million that we’ve actually set aside (under the 2021-22 budget) for this to happen if we need it,” said Eichler, who was hesitant to answer that question directly. “If we need to do another program, we certainly will. It may not be the same program we have before.”

“What I’ve heard from Manitobans and on our calls on a regular basis is that businesses want to be able to get back to capacity, and make their own money and have employees back and do those things on their own,” Eichler added.

Mark Wasyliw, the NDP’s deputy house leader and official critic for finance, said that’s not exactly true. “Businesses aren’t monolithic like this government seems to be thinking and they certainly haven’t been consulted from what we’ve seen,” Wasyliw said, in an interview Wednesday.

“They definitely didn’t prepare for the economic consequences of the second wave and it looks like they haven’t prepared for the economic consequences of the third wave either.”

Lamont accused the Tories of promising emergency assistance that businesses can’t access, citing the left-over $60-million in unspent relief funding. He also criticized the Progressive Conservatives for around 60 per cent of the $46 million dedicated to last year’s summer jobs “staying in their bank accounts.”

“A year into the pandemic, there should be plenty of evidence for which businesses need help, and what kind of help they need,” said Lamont. “It needs to happen now to prevent a crisis, not after one has already happened.”

 

temur.durrani@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @temurdur