COVID-19 UPDATE #11
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT UPDATE

  • On Friday Prime Minister Trudeau announced details on the new initiative we reported last week....The new Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) program will provide support for eligible businesses paying rent for the months of APRIL, MAY and JUNE. Eligible businesses are those who are paying less than $50,000 per month in rent and who have temporarily ceased operations or have experienced at least a 70 percent drop in pre-COVID-19 revenues. The program will provide forgivable loans to qualifying commercial property owners to cover 50 percent of three monthly rent payments that are payable by eligible small business tenants who are experiencing financial hardship during April, May, and June. The loans will be forgiven if the mortgaged property owner agrees to reduce the eligible small business tenants’ rent by at least 75 percent for the three corresponding months under a rent forgiveness agreement, which will include a term not to evict the tenant while the agreement is in place. The small business tenant would cover the remainder, up to 25 percent of the rent.

  • It is expected that CECRA will be operational by mid-May, and further details will be announced soon.
Great RESOURCES to keep track of;

  • The CFIB (Canadian Federation of Independent Business) Covid-19 Support page is available to ALL small businesses whether you are a member of CFIB yet or not. Keep these guys in your corner and bookmark this handy link should you have any questions. They do a great job at CFIB and Bowl Canada appreciates their sharing of information throughout this crisis. You should also know that we have spoken with them about our industry and it's unique vulnerability under this pandemic and they offered to make our position known where they could. THANKS CFIB!

INSURANCE and the "Business Interruption" conundrum

As many of us have been hearing, the insurance industry is claiming that Business Interruption clauses on commercial liability policies will not cover the Covid-19 crisis as the policies are triggered by physical damage to the commercial property, which limits or inhibits the businesses ability to conduct it's affairs.

Merchant Law is a Canadian law firm with offices across Canada. They are challenging this position with a Class Action lawsuit against the Insurance Industry, claiming that the virus constitutes physical damage in terms of the property (bowling centre) being damaged by the public leaving contagious traces all over the centre if it were to remain open.

Tony Merchant of Merchant Law invites anyone interested in joining the Class Action lawsuit to contact the firm at;

Tony Merchant: tmerchant@merchantlaw.com 1-877-359-7777
In Quebec, contact the Montreal office at 514-248-7777
REOPENING

Reopening Plans are being worked on by all levels of government, and as we we all look forward to getting back in the swing of things we need to make sure we are not forgotten. Bowling centres have yet to be mentioned (specifically) in any of the government communications we've seen. We were told to close under the category of "recreation facilities", but we need to make sure that we are opening in the earliest possible wave that our competitors, such as restaurants and pubs, etc. are allowed to open.

Contact your local MP (again - at least you'll get to know her or him) and find out how your business is categorized, and make sure reopening strategies include your industry at the earliest opportunity.

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And as mentioned in the recent issue of Nexus (Trevor Peters' cover article), we don't know what will be required of bowling centres as their doors once again swing open, but we do know things will be different (at least at first). Bowl Canada is therefore forming a committee to develop Best Practices for the post-Covid era. Watch for details in the near future.
Bowl Canada | bowlcanada.ca