Second Open Letter from BESTWR on Government Support for Business during COVID-19 Pandemic

Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Ford:

The Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, Communitech, Waterloo Region Economic Development Corporation, and the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce are the leading business organizations in Waterloo Region, Ontario. Together, we represent 90,000 workers and 3,500 businesses of every type and size. Our members and clients include advanced manufacturers, innovators, technology companies, major financial services firms, insurance providers, agriculture and small businesses of every type.

On March 25, we wrote to you outlining six ways to immediately support business, job creators, not-for-profits and charities, and municipalities.

As you’ll recall, we called for fast and bold action on:

• an emergency wage subsidy;
• a backstop for Canadian banks;
• a postponement of HST/GST remittance payments;
• deferral of mortgage and rent payments for citizens;
• support for the charitable and not-for-profit sector; and
• waiving of penalties and interest and a range of municipal flexibility options.

You have worked hard to deliver for Ontario and Canada, and we are grateful that your governments have moved on a range of these or similar initiatives. As we wrote in our letter to you, we will stand with you to defend your decision to ‘go big’ on an economic protection and recovery plan given its vital significance to Canada’s job creators. Additionally, we are proud and grateful to note that Canada’s response to the health crisis is already yielding results, and your shared leadership of the economic crisis has been robust. In many ways, Ontario and Canada are helping to lead the way through the COVID19 crisis. 

Read the full press release in the PDF below.

Attachments

Second Open Letter from BESTWR