If your physically-distant walks are taking you down any downtown streets, you are probably seeing a lot of closed-up storefronts. It is alarming how many of the businesses we love may not be around to welcome us back after COVID-19.
Smallbusinessincrisis.ca was created by a group of volunteers in collaboration with a grassroots coalition of small businesses. They have created an interactive map to track the status of threatened small businesses across Canada.
We have zoomed in on the to create this screencap of the downtown Toronto core, you can click through to get more detail about what has already closed, what is very likely to close, and what is somewhat likely to close:
Looking at the numbers for the whole country, the impact of COVID-19 will be severe. So far, this is what has been reported to the site:
- 74 businesses permanently closed (671 impacted)
- 494 businesses very likely to close (4,356 impacted)
- 427 businesses somewhat likely to close (4,850 impacted)
We know the numbers are likely much higher. So far, 7.5 million workers across the country have applied for the Canada Emergency Response benefit, and thousands of employers have applied for Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy support.
The federal government has also announced a 75% commercial rent support. But this will only happen if the Provinces can come together to get it done. You can send a message to your elected provincial representatives to help make that happen.
And if you are a small business owner whose business has already closed, or is likely to close soon without further supports, please fill out this survey to be added to the map.
