Pam's Roti, a popular Bloorcourt roti shop, is seeking help from the community to keep its doors open as their landlord refuses to apply for rent relief.
Pam Singh, the owner of Pam's Roti, posted on the shop's Facebook page that her landlord is threatening to close down her restaurant after asking him to apply for the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program (CECRA).
Pam and Mr. Singh pictured working in their shop.
The CECRA is a federal and provincial rent subsidy which provides forgivable loans to landlords to cover 50% of rent costs so long as they agree to reduce their tenants' rent by at least 75% for April through June. This allows business owners to pay only 25% of their usual monthly rent.
According to the post, Singh's landlord has refused to apply for the rent subsidy as it is "too much work" to apply and has threatened to force her out if she does not pay the entirety of her rent for the month of June.
Singh's post has garnered an outpour of support from the community including local MP Marit Stiles, councillor Ana Bailao and MPP Julie Dzerowicz, who have personally written letters to Doug Ford and Singh's landlord urging that he reconsider applying for the program.
"We are all feeling the financial burden of COVID-19 and due to takeout only, sales have dropped," says Singh.
Pam's Roti is one of many small businesses in Toronto who are at a discord with their landlords amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the federal rent subsidy is a voluntary program that does not require landlords to honour the 75% rent reduction for their business tenants, many landlords choose to ignore the subsidized program. In fact, a recent survey conducted by Save Small Business, a grassroots coalition of 40,000 small businesses across Canada, found that only 1 in 5 Canadian small businesses expect to receive rent relief under the CECRA.
Several bars and restaurants in the city have already been locked out by their landlords as a result of not being able to meet rental obligations. The federal government and city officials have been under scrutiny as there are no policies enforcing a ban on commercial evictions, even as the COVID-19 pandemic wages on into the third month of forced closures.
A GoFundMe page has since been set up to help save Pam's Roti from eviction.
