COVID-19 Update: 459 new cases, 12 deaths | Businesses facing closures ‘at a tipping point’

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Wednesday

‘At a tipping point’: Patience wearing thin for some business owners still facing closures

John Sikking, vice-president and co-owner of the IHOP restaurants in the province at his Deerfoot City mall location which opened last summer and has now been shut down since December with the COVID restrictions in Calgary on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021. Photo by Darren Makowichuk/Postmedia

“We’re all at a tipping point. We’ve run out of money,” said Jeff Jamieson, an Alberta Hospitality Association (AHA) board member and owner of Donna Mac and Proof cocktail bar in Calgary.

AHA does not condone defying public-health orders but understands the immense pressure and anxiety that business owners are enduring right now, Jamieson said.

“The government needs to subsidize the industries that they’ve forced close,” said Jamieson. “You have to supplement them to the level that they are comfortable not opening to earn a living.”

Wednesday

More than $300M in provincial grant funding handed out to businesses affected by lockdown: Biz groups call for more aid

More than $311 million in provincial grant funding has been awarded to small businesses ordered to close due to Alberta’s COVID-19 restrictions, though business groups say more government aid is needed to help the hardest-hit enterprises through this second wave of the pandemic.

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