It was always Ginger Robertson’s dream to have a second restaurant and after the success of The Edmund Burke on Danforth Avenue, it happened by being able to buy Off The Hook Fishbar on Broadview.
“Now I don’t know what’s going to happen with either one of them, I really don’t,” she said.
As COVID-19’s economic impact continues, extra attention is being put on small businesses, as Thursday marks the first day that landlords can evict commercial tenants that couldn’t pay April rent.
On Wednesday, Toronto city councillor Paula Fletcher held a virtual news conference with business representatives urging action to address the issue, with rent relief being of particular concern.
Then as she feared, she tweeted about an eviction the next morning:
First Covid-19 commercial eviction on the Danforth. Without eviction protection Ns rent relief this is just the start. https://t.co/uGE3UKUxz0 #KeepTheLightsOn pic.twitter.com/dJi8V0D3Ny
— Paula Fletcher (@PaulaFletcherTO) April 16, 2020
“First Covid-19 commercial eviction on the Danforth,” she wrote, accompanied by an image of an eviction notice for the business. “Without eviction protection Ns rent relief this is just the start.”
Robertson paid her rent for April, saying it was non-negotiable from her landlord, but she doesn’t blame him.
“I don’t know his financial situation so it’s not like I can say he’s a greedy landlord or he’s any of these things, I don’t believe that,” she said.
“But what’s really unfair about all of it is that we’re forced closed, forced to not have any income coming in to pay the rent and it’s damaging relationships between landlords and tenants that were fine before.”