June 1st is looking to be a very bittersweet four-year anniversary for Ryan Brooks and the virtual reality arcade company he's grown with his family, to now well over a dozen locations in Canada, and some planned for the U.S.
While it should be a time of celebration like so many businesses celebrating anniversaries, it's one of worry and anxiety as rent is due.
"The program just doesn't work for either party right now," he said about the federal government's commercial rent relief program, CECRA. "While they're learning that, we're still at risk of being evicted."
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been non-committal to the short halt on evictions for businesses, like he's done for individuals.
He's previously said landlords should "hang in there" as CECRA program was rolled out this week, wanting to see how it goes.
After telling landlords "don't force my hand" last week should they not participate, he reissued that warning Monday.
"They aren't going to like the consequences if they don't sign up for it," he said. "I can assure you, I'm protecting the tenants."
Brooks is one of many small business owners that have been calling for a moratorium on commercial evictions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was recently echoed by several business groups.
"I'm not even sure what that means," he said about Ford's threat. "It's an optional program right now, so I don't know how there can be consequences for not opting in."
On Monday, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Ontario Chamber of Commerce, Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association, Restaurants Canada, and Retail Council of Canada, issued a joint letter to the provincial government asking for the temporary halt to evictions for tenants who were previously in good standing.
"We already know from our members that many landlords will not apply, meaning that their tenants will not be able to access the program and the commercial tenant eviction protection it includes," the letter says. "In the absence of sufficient support, a large portion of the economy and the jobs created by our hard-working members will disappear forever."
CECRA is designed so that tenants who have lost 70 per cent of their revenue as compared to the same point last year only have to pay 25 per cent of current rent, while the program covers 50 per cent and the landlord the remaining 25.
But Brooks says of all his business' franchises - which include around 150 employees in total - which were forced to close in March, a landlord has only indicated it was applying for the program in one location.
Reasons why he says are CECRA putting all of the application work involved at the hands of the landlord itself, which gets higher if it has multiple tenants.
Landlords he adds may also be resistant if they think the business isn't going to survive in the long run and if in his case, businesses have been forced to shut down completely, with zero revenue coming in, which also nullifies the wage subsidy program.
Given his options and the other loans he's been able to apply for, the only viable alternative is a halt on evictions, to ensure his business' future, along with its roughly 150 employees.
"The other option at our disposal is that we just break the mandate of being closed during this time, so that we can start generating revenue again," he said. "We definitely don't want to do that, we understand why we're supposed to be closed, but the support there to counter that is just not sufficient."