January 20th, 2021
January 20th, 2021
PETERBOROUGH — Catherine Fife, NDP critic for Economic Growth and Job Creation, said financial support for small and medium-sized businesses in Peterborough needs to come now, to make sure they make it to the other side of the pandemic without further debt burdens.
Local MPP Dave Smith told Peterborough this Week that his government is banking on the vaccine as their small business plan. “People will know they can go out (and shop) without getting COVID,” said Smith
“Small businesses have been fighting like hell to stay afloat for months now, and they can’t afford to wait months without more help,” said Fife. “Vaccines undoubtedly are a light at the end of the tunnel, but it will take time to ramp up and roll them out to Peterborough. Meanwhile, small businesses are falling through the gaps of this government’s patchwork of threadbare programs.
“Sitting back and waiting for a vaccine is not a plan to save small businesses and jobs that are at risk today. The Ford government is sitting on billions in COVID funding — and refusing to spend that money now will cost the government more in the long run, and it could cost small businesses in Peterborough everything.”
The NDP proposed a plan to Save Main Street that can help small businesses in Peterborough keep people on the payroll and keep up with rent, as well as make investments needed to safely re-open, and set-up online or curbside-pickup operations.
“An investment in Peterborough’s small businesses today is an investment in Peterborough’s economic recovery,” said Fife. “An NDP government would have started investing in businesses directly, with meaningful financial compensation months ago, and we are urging the government to recall the legislature now and use some of the billions in unspent COVID funding to beef up support immediately.”