BANFF – Banff council is going to battle for local start-up companies that have fallen through the cracks of government wage and rent supports during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Council directed the mayor to write a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other ministers advocating for the same financial supports for start-ups as for businesses that existed before the pandemic.
Christian Dubois, who started the The Radiant restaurant in 2020 and is part of a new organization called Save Startups, sought council’s help on the issue for local new businesses.
“Access to these government supports would ensure that The Radiant and other Banff start-ups are getting the help they need to survive through the pandemic,” Dubois said.
The letter, which was co-signed by Banff Mayor Karen Sorensen, Banff and Lake Louise Tourism and Banff and Lake Louise Hospitality Association, states these entrepreneurs are unable to show lost earnings because they don’t have previous years of operations for comparison.
There were 35 new business licences issued in the Town of Banff in 2020.
“Well over 90 per cent of businesses in tourism-based economies are small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs, and Banff exceeds this statistic,” stated the letter.
In a normal year, small businesses and entrepreneurs in Banff face numerous challenges of sustainability, and many evolve with changing demands of visitor populations. Regular start-ups are a natural part of the economy.
However, new businesses faced extraordinary hardship due to normal first-year challenges compounded by restrictions on operations and decimated travel visitation.
This has led Banff to join communities like the City of Victoria to request amendments to Canada’s support programs, including adjusting eligibility for programs for new or newly-expanded businesses that can demonstrate their project was non-reversible at the outset of the pandemic.
The letter also ask the federal government to implement an alternate method of determining Canada’s emergency wage and rent subsidies for these businesses and back paying to March 15, 2020 based on this alternate rate.
“The survival of our economy, and the economies of many other communities, depends on these support programs,” states the letter fired off to the prime minister on May 17.
