Councillor looking for rent relief for city tenants and others who need it

Timmins Councillor Joe Campbell is going to bat for organizations and small businesses that need rent relief during the pandemic.

At Tuesday night’s regular meeting, he’ll ask his colleagues to approve financial help for tenants of city facilities. They include the Schumacher Lions Club, who rent the Lions Den at the McIntyre Community Building; and the Shriners, who rent space at the Whitney Arena.

They don’t qualify for federal rent relief, because they don’t have payrolls or an account with the Canada Revenue Agency. Campbell notes that small, mom-and-pop businesses are in the same position.

“At some point along the line, there are people that are falling through the cracks,” he comments.  “Small businesses that don’t meet the criteria — there’s lots of them.”

Campbell says some pandemic relief money City Hall received from higher governments could be used for rent relief.  He notes that the Lions and Shriners got four months of rent relief earlier this year, and need it again.

“They’re still not able to generate the revenue that they used to generate because of health unit restrictions on the numbers and the sanitary issues and so on like this. They’re both in small areas.”