Restaurant owner fears 'devastation' for small business in N.S. without more help

Chef Craig Flinnhas been able reopen his restaurantsin Halifax and Dartmouth, but neither is as busy as it was before the pandemic.

"We're operating at 30 to 40 per cent of normal revenue, and that would be a mixture of limited-to-reduced dine-in, as well as some takeout," he said.

"It's devastating really."

Flinnsaid government programs allowed him to restart operations, but he thinks small business owners will need sustained help to keep their doors open.

Two grants available

The owner-operator of Two Doors Down received a total of $10,000 in grants from the province's Small Business Impact and the Small Business Reopening programs.

More than 3,300 small businessesreceived a total of $9,646,185 in grants from the Impact program offered in April.

As of last Wednesday, about 3,500small businesses had applied and received a total of $10,675,075 in grants from the reopening program.

The provincial government has extended the deadline to apply for reopening grantsto July 17 from the original June 30 deadline.

Small business owners could receiveboth grantsto a maximum of $5,000 each.The province also offered independent gas retailers and dental offices a $5,000 one-time grant.

Money 'very useful' but not enough

Flinn called the grants "very useful" but also said most businesses could spend that money in short order.

"Let's face it, as great as that is a help, in a business, $5,000 can be a utility bill for per month," he said. "It can literally be gone in a flash.

"It's a Band-Aid. It's a very small Band-Aid on a very big wound."

Jordi Morgan, Atlantic regionvice-president for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, agreed more needs to be done to keep struggling businesses viable.

"This isn't going to be a two-or-three-month thing," he said. "This is going to last a considerable period of time and I don't think that we've seen the worst of it."

He pointed to sectors he believes will be most vulnerable.

"From the touristsector, the hospitality, we're going to be seeing some real devastation here and there is going to be a need to come up with some strategies that are going to be able to help these people in the long term," said Morgan, who called this a "federal disaster."

'I think everybody is feeling their way around'

"I just don't think they know what they can do to make this better," he said. "I think everybody is feeling their way around in the dark a little bit."

Flinn saidpoliticians should return to Province House to try to come up with ways to help.

"I would love to see the legislature back in, hammering out a plan, to get into a conversation about the next 12 months for small business in this province," he said.

"It has to be a conversation at the highest level,and understand that April through mid-July is not where the suffering is going to be for the economy in Nova Scotia."