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New Brunswick Green Party leader and MLA David Coon is calling on Premier Higgs to create a grant program similar to the ones in Nova Scotia and P.E.I. that help with expenses related to implementing safety measures.
The grant program Coon proposes asks for up to $5,000 per month to support small, independently owned dine-in restaurants, bars, and fitness and leisure establishments impacted by public health directives in the orange zones, or potential future red zones.
“We’ve got good models in the other Maritime provinces to follow in terms of what kind of provincial support for small businesses have been or are being provided and I think we can simply adopt those,” said Coon.
Unlike Nova Scotia’s Small Business Impact Grant, Coon is calling for Higgs to make the grant available on a monthly basis.
“I think Nova Scotia was operating under the assumption that they wouldn’t be in a more rigid phase for longer than a month and I just wanted to make sure that the bases were covered in case something did extend for a longer period of time,” said Coon.
Coon also calls for a Workspace Adaption Assistance Fund similar to one implemented by Prince Edward Island that ended in August. The Fund would retroactively offer grants for small businesses for expenses that were directly related to implementing safety measures of a Covid-19 operational plan.
Additionally, Coon calls for help for small businesses from the Higgs government in supporting energy-efficient upgrades with targeted loans and technical advice designed to achieve 15 percent to 35 percent on their energy bills.
“It is in the public interest for our local economies to weather the Covid storm, so public investment in the small businesses most affected by Covid measures is urgently needed,” said Coon. “Small businesses are the backbone of our local economies and need our support.”
Coon says that he understands a lot of small businesses are only able to survive because of the Federal Wage Subsidy and require more assistance getting through Covid-19 and asks for more support as phases of recovery move from Yellow to Orange and Orange to Red.
“The business owners I’ve talked to have been saying, ‘look, we just need a little bit of help when we get set back in these stricter zones to get through that period’ and I thought Nova Scotia and PEI’s programs were really quite impressive and we should adopt versions of those here,” said Coon.
Coon says the focus of the government should be on supporting small businesses the most heavily hit through the outbreaks.
“The Premier talks about wanting to increase productivity and at this stage, that’s a bit premature in terms of a focus because if a business goes under, they’re not going to be producing anything and their productivity’s going to be a moot point,” said Coon. “So we need to get through this and that has to be a priority right now.”
Liam Floyd is a reporter for Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
