Good Morning All, First, thank you to all of the business owners who have agreed to stand up for small businesses tomorrow at noon. Attached please find the following: 1. Our media release - already sent out 2. Instagram template - for those who wish to promote tomorrow's protest on your social media 3. Business sign templates - these are currently being printed for those who need a sign; some of you have made your own signs which is great!…

Hi All, I'm following up on my message from yesterday re: taking a stand for small business. Thanks so much to those of you who have already said you'd stand in front of your business this Friday at noon. All BIAs in the city are asking their members to do this, We are pushing the government to Think Outside The Box on how they manage the current lockdown and any future lockdowns. We met with Minister Sarkaria (Provincial Minister for…

Good Afternoon All, I know that everyone is stressed and frustrated right now. So I wanted to share the following message from our friends at the Riverdale Share Concert. I also highly recommend clicking on the Holiday greeting link and watching the video they've produced - it is really wonderful - it takes about 7 minutes but it is so worth the time. We are sad that the 28th Annual Riverdale Share Concert did not occur this year. We have…

Good Morning All, I just had a 90 minute meeting with some of our fellow BIAs and John Kiru from TABIA. The purpose of the meeting was to develop a plan to fight for a modified restructuring to the current lock-down. Here's what we're looking at: 1. Tonight TABIA is having their AGM and Mayor Tory will be up first - we will be pressing him to consider modifying the current restrictions to allow small business retailers to allow By-Appointment…

Good Morning All, The Federal government has now opened the second phase of CEBA - the loan program. I know that some of you have been waiting for this particular program. Below is the link to the CEBA site where you can get further information. As with the first loan program, you will apply for this one through your bank. Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) Government expands Canada Emergency Business Account loans From: Department of Finance Canada News release December…

Good Afternoon All, For the past several weeks we've been working on a holiday partnership with radio station 680News. You may remember that we've partnered with them in previous years to promote our summer Thrill of the Grill event. Their listener demographics are very much in line with our BIA consumer demographics. Because of our long relationship with them, they wanted to do something to try and help our BIA businesses during this extremely challenging holiday season. So they decided…