This letter is long, but it is important.

If you own a small business and/or support small business in MB please share with friends, with family, spread the word, UNITE. Send to your local ombudsman, your MLA, our premier and Dr. Brent Roussin.

• brent.roussin@gov.mb.ca
• premier@leg.gov.mb.ca
• MLA Alphabetical Listing

OPEN LETTER TO THE PREMIER

Manitoba Provincial Considerations for Small Business

It is without a doubt that the 2020 year and still in 2021 we as a community are facing one of the largest unknown challenges of our time. Living in a world affected by an international pandemic. The Novel Corona Virus we have come to know as Covid-19 has caused the world to react swiftly and heavily to how we operate and how we stay healthy. Governments have been looked toward for leadership and guidance and their reactions have been quick, often knee jerk, and seemingly in comparison to what neighboring provinces are implementing. Some directives also are seeming to be slight variations of protection models used in other countries around the world that are dealing with the same issues.

In the wave of decisions many businesses have been forced to close their store front presence and have been issued directive that they can only sell “essential” items online or with curbside pickup. In much the same fashion, restaurants can offer food only on a pick-up or delivery basis. This letter is not addressing those businesses it is pertaining to all the other small Manitoba businesses that do not have an offering for curbside, they cannot sell online, and they cannot deliver. It is because they are service based, and without the ability to interact with clients they cannot make sales. They do not have an alternate source of income and if forced to continue in this lock down, will not survive.

The Pallister Government is failing

The Pallister Government is failing its commitment to protect our province and make sound political and economic decisions that will give our home, Manitoba, the ability to succeed and strengthen its position in the Canadian and world economy. This government states that its decisions are for the safety and health of the people of this province.

Back in November Mr. Pallister made an address on Global Television in a press interview where he became emotional and addressed the question as to why he likes to be so hated. Too many concerns came from this address, including the fact that he referred to his voting constituents as “Idiots” if they do not believe in the pandemic. He states he is the guy that tells us we cannot see friends, shop, run a business, work, or even go to church. Mr. Pallister states that these are the “toughest restrictions in the country” and they are to keep us safe. Mr. Pallister states that “I do what I believe is right. I do what I believe is necessary.” And goes on to say that he took on this job to “save my town” What is concerning is to have a leader make these statements while he stands in front of a town that is burning to the ground because what he thinks is right is a pile of decisions that lack the application and use of data, science, and sound economic principles.

Safety, this is the motivation apparently for all the decisions that are being made. We want to keep our communities safe and curb the transmission of the virus, is the message that has been issued by the government. Off the cuff, closing business operations might seem to be the solution to this. But after the decisions were made the data would show otherwise. All of the information that has been provided by the public on transmissions and spread have pointed towards the majority of the occurrences being related to inter-provincial travel, and gatherings. At one point large gatherings were the focus but now it is gatherings of any type. The closure of businesses did not stop the spread, it did not curb the numbers, and I am sure that the post-Christmas/ New Year’s numbers will reinforce this statement.

Manitoba small business recorded record losses

During the holidays Manitoba small business sat idle and recorded record losses on revenue and as we lost the numbers keep going up. Big box didn’t suffer though, they thrived in these closures. Multi-billion dollar enterprises with dedicated IT departments and huge staff numbers can easily react to last minute government decisions, small business do not have the resources to do the same, so even if they have offerings for curbside it is hard for them to get that information out. But as we see gatherings are one of the major factors for the spread of the virus why do we not see gathering at big box stores to be an issue. Looking at the public information there have been several transmissions of Covid-19 that have occurred in big box stores.

A big box store is a venue allowing large numbers to gather daily in an uncontrolled environment. There is no screening to get into these stores, there is no way of tracking how many people and who those people are, you cannot possibly know what has been touched and by whom in the store, and there is no feasible way that proper sterilization can occur between clients using shared checkouts, doors, carts, and washrooms. But even though we have several transmission attributed to this environment, these billion dollar enterprises are allowed to continue. Many small businesses that offer services have the ability to easily and accurately track who comes through the door. They do not see the volume of people that big box does in the course of the day and many (hair, nails, tattooing, gym, tanning, aesthetics, movie theaters, play centers etc) have the ability to operate on a scheduled appointment basis. They can screen the clients and gather accurate information on the people they deal with, if there should be a transmission it is the small businesses that can more accurately provide information on who may have been affected for contact tracing.

These businesses have the ability to social distance and properly clean and sterilize areas that customers have been prior to the next client. They are not managing tens of thousands of square feet and thousands of items that could be potentially touched by an infected shopper that enters without any questions asked. Many of these businesses reacted swiftly in the first lockdown to create a system to control client flow and implemented client information gathering for trace purposes. Thousands of dollars spent to provide a safe environment that have gone uncompensated and now ignored by our government in this second closure. In many of the businesses, personal protections between the client and the operator have always been in place and in looking at businesses such as tattooing or piercing the barriers, sterilization, and processes have always been in place. The guidance issued by the province was met and exceeded before it was issued in these cases. This sort of business has had to protect itself from several blood born and air born infections on a daily basis, COVID-19 is one more to add to the list. Several of the other businesses mentioned already had cleaning processes in place and increased the efforts to meet the guidance so to be able to operate after the first closure.

How is closing businesses helping stop this?

Data and science seem to paint the picture that gatherings are an issue and so is international and interprovincial travel. It also points to the majority of the adversely affected to be elderly or people that have underlying medical conditions, the combination of the two aforementioned being the worst case scenario for recovery if one should be affected. How is closing businesses helping stop this? Take away the ability for people to do things in the community such as shopping or going to the gym etc and they will become bored and gather in other areas in larger numbers, take away the ability for humans to interact publicly and they will gather privately. This has been made apparent if one would observe sledding hills, dog parks, flood way hills, public outdoor rinks, school play areas. Combined with mild winter temperatures these sites are over populated with families in an uncontrolled space that do not observe social distancing nor use of masks, because in a public forum there is no ability to regulate unless dedicated roles are established to regulate and control these areas. Small business can regulate the provincial mandate and control social distancing as it is their property and to successfully operate it is a requirement of the province.

Covid-19 is often more severe in people 60+ yrs or with health conditions that affect their immune system (WHO, 2020, Covid-19: Vulnerable and high risk groups). Mortality in Canada due to Covid-19 is currently 2.6% (Statcan.gc.ca 2021, Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19): Epidemiology update). To date people in the age category of 60-80+ account for 22.2% of infections in the province of Manitoba, but account for 70.4% of the hospitalizations (Health-infobase.canada.ca 2020: National Overview). According to the Government of Manitoba website over 80% of the fatal cases in our province occurs in the same age category 60-80+. (Gov.mb.ca 2020: Severity, Fig 6. Age Distribution of Severe COVID-19 Cases Compared to All Cases, Manitoba 2020).

This data would suggest that the focus to “protect Manitoba citizens” is in the wrong place. Bubble wrap the elderly, limit their ability to be exposed to the virus, put controls in place to prevent entry of anybody in the facilities to those that work there, increase the prescreen prior to employees starting a shift, supply assistance to the elderly to obtain essential items in a way that allows them to remain quarantined and not have to go out in public. Protect Hospitals, personal care homes, long term care homes, and retirement villages. In December, exposure data is all over the map most likely due to the inability of tracking who enters and leaves big box stores. 1.4% attributed to travel, 51.8% due to close contact cases, 23.8% are unknown (could this be because any operating big Box store doesn’t track nor screen customers?) and 23% states “pending” with no additional information as to what this means. What is stated is that the top contact type is “Household exposure” (Gov.mb.ca, 2020: Week 52 (December 20-December 26th)). Even though the data points everywhere other than small business it is the small businesses that are mandated to close while inter-provincial travel and gatherings are “strongly discouraged”.

Government support is meager and an insult

The government has said that they are offering support to small business, in the form of financial assistance. The offerings are meager and an insult to those that have fought to succeed in a small business for years to make a living and even less of a help to those businesses that just opened to compete in the free market right as the pandemic forced closures on government decisions. Young businesses have a large debt load an no capitol or liquidity to survive the closures and mature small business is losing the cash position they once had giving up their liquidity to try to survive. The Pallister Government thinks small cash amounts in the form of a grant, or forgivable loans are a savior, however they fail to realize that this does not even scratch the operating costs of having a business sit idle and not gain revenue. The provincial partially forgivable loan even carries a stipulation that you cannot have made use of Federal packages. The feds now are offering the CEBA and calling it an interest free loan that could have $20,000 forgiven if you can pay it back in a year. Not any help at all, most of this assistance comes with stipulations of tight payback timelines which do nothing but increase the operating expense of a business that doesn’t even know when it will make revenue to pay back the debt. Interest free it states, but when you look further you will see that it is taxed as income so right up front you lose more of the money to tax than if you were given an outrageous interest rate for the one year pay back.

The Government needs to get involved, not just sit on the hill and issue commands ignorant of what the real economic situation is. Why does a hair salon in Polo Park have to continue to pay $14,000 a month rent when they cannot operate and the mall with little to no offerings has become a ghost town? Where is the Government when they should intervene against greedy landlords that are collecting full rent but not incurring full expenses? How about intervene with city Government and while the business sits idle in a free market economy the government eats the property tax, insurance, phone, hydro, security etc that is required to exist in a shut down. Instead the government spends billions giving payroll deduction subsidy and payroll expense subsidy to billion dollar businesses that have gained market share during this crisis?

Why do they maintain a plan that is not working?

This Province, this country was founded and built on small business, work ethic and competition in a free market. The governments decisions using little to none of the data or evidence provided, continue to stick to a plan that is proving since the second closure to be ineffective. Why do they maintain a plan that is not working? Is our Government so top heavy that they cannot spin the slow cogs of the government wheel fast enough to actually be effective in keeping our communities safe? The issue is the virus, the problem is how it is being managed.

Instead of Mr. Pallister and Dr. Roussin making decisions on what they feel is safe, and turning it into mixed messages ( 5 or less in your home…nobody in your home from outside your home…..no you can have some people outside but not inside…). Instead of allowing sales of goods in an erratic and uncontrollable manner (essential goods only……no you can buy wrapping paper and tape etc. since it is the holiday season) make decisions based on science and data. How about our elected government starts to make decisions based on what the voice of the voting constituents say. Why don’t they employ science, statistics, and data collection to make informed educated decisions? As opposed to “what I feel is right” as was stated by Mr. Pallister in his November Global Interview. Why not support local small business instead of lining the pockets of big box stores by giving them breaks during a time that they are posting record revenues.

The fall out concern here is the extinction of small business, the collapse of retail stores, the depression of commercial real estate and the inevitable economic black hole that the governmental mismanagement is creating. Government has spent billions in assistance to strong preforming large multinational enterprises all while stepping on the necks of the small business owners, the voting constituents. This is on top of the massive tax breaks that are already given to the big businesses and the rich.

So whenever this pandemic comes into control and those that are still alive are allowed to resume business, how will it look? Will the small business have to figure out a plan to dig out of lost revenues and massive debt on its own while big box flourishes? The forgone mortgages, the skipped payments and the so called loans will have done nothing but add to the operating costs of the businesses making it even less likely to survive. Will there finally be massive tax breaks to those service based businesses that could not operate during the pandemic so they can dig out? Will you look to increasing the tax rate of the rich and prospering big business to help shoulder this burden that your government’s mismanagement created? Or is it going to be the same old rich get richer scenario that the current government seems to have no problem supporting? I’m sure Mr. Pallister with his multiple Canadian properties and his Costa Rican Getaway property have not suffered at all especially when the taxpayers pay his salary. The taxpayer also pays a sizable one to Dr. Roussin as well. I am sure we don’t do this so they can do what they “feel” is right we the tax payer do it because we want them to make proper decisions that are informed and for the betterment of our province and economy. These decisions are not being made currently.

Small businesses need to unite

Small businesses we NEED to unite to send this message to government, they must allow us to operate. If they think big box stores are ok to open then we should all be able to open. If they think that a bare handed massage, or acupuncture can operate as a service safely then we should all be able to operate under the same guidelines. We need to send this message to our government. Send this to your ombudsman or local MLA pass it to other business owners you know are affected come Jan 8th new decisions need to be made to protect our public and killing small business is not the answer. Police our provincial borders, stop non-essential travel, increase regulation in communities to stop gatherings in households. Put your focus where it needs to be to effectively manage the pandemic. The public has supported the decisions made but we cannot support mis-management. Full closure is more effective that this joke of a management plan. The current plan is not working dare to try something else.

Sincerely,
Abigail Boivin
Small Business Owner
Winnipeg, MB