N.W.T. businesses can get more funding for evacuation expenses. They say it's still not enough

A business owner in Yellowknife said his business is hanging on by a thread and recently increased wildfire relief funding doesn't provide enough support.

"It's a struggle, it's a hustle, it's stressful. You don't know where to start. You don't know where to end," said Rami Kassem, the owner of Javaroma, which has four stores in Yellowknife.

Despite multiple locations, his business can only get up to $10,000 through the wildfire relief funding the same amount a business with one Yellowknife store can access.

Kassem said that money, along with getting up to$5,000 from BDIC, still isn't enoughto cover rent for his four locations.

He said not getting more funding, despite owning more store properties, is frustrating.

Business is down at all his locations, and Javaroma was still still trying to recover from the hit it took from the pandemic.

"We are in debt big time since COVID we can't even pay our expenses, like our loans," he said.

In early October, the N.W.T. governmentannounced it was increasing the amount of funding available to businesses.

The funding jumped from up to $5,000 to up to $20,000 depending on where the business is established.

The money is meant to cover things like rent, utilities and food spoilage during the evacuation.

Not all stores in different locations eligible for funding

Another business owner who isfeeling frustrated with the relief funding is Justin Rivera, who owns Wesclean Northern Sales Ltd. a business that sells janitorial and industrial supplies.

He owns two store locations: one in Hay River and the other one in Yellowknife.

According to the new funding, the amount of funding available is based on the length of evacuation.Businesses in Yellowknife can get up to $10,000, while those in Hay River can get up to $20,000.

Despite owning two stores in different locations Rivera said he can't access the funding for his store in Hay River because his business is registered in Yellowknife.

"It doesn't feel very fair, to be honest," he said, adding the cost of operation is actually higher at his Hay River location because of the number of staff there. The store also closed for longer, so he saidthe money would have been helpful.

"They are only allowing me to take advantage of the smaller $10,000 portion it's disappointing."

While Rivera appreciates the funding from the government, he said there should be exceptions made and the rules shouldn't be so black and white.

"It's foolish how they are limiting what I have access to because of my location," he said.

The territorial Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment did not respond to a request for comment about thefunding, and its guidelines for businesses with multiple locations, by the time of publication.

Riveraalso paid his staff's salaries through the evacuation. He said the $10,000 offered to businesses in Yellowknife is not even six percent of what he paid to support his employees.

"Ten thousand dollars is a drop in the bucket for a business like mine," he said.

Loss of revenue should be considered

The funding does not cover things like lost revenue or employee salaries.

Lisa Seagrave, who owns the Gallery of the Midnight Sunin Yellowknife, said she appreciates the fundingbut wishes it would have also covered lost revenue.

"We lost a lot of revenue at a very critical time of the year for us," she said.

"That was one of our major selling periods, where we had to close our doors and walk away from revenue."

Seagrave said heading into the future she's hoping for a good tourism season and good sales over Christmas.

"We hadn't really even fully recovered from the pandemic when this hit us, but we were still standing at the end of the pandemic, so I'm determined for that to continue," she said.

"We're not going to fold now."

'Tremendously negative impact' from evacuation

Newton Grey, the president of the NWTChamber of Commerce, said he's thankful that the government is acknowledging the importance of small businesses.

"This unplanned evacuation has had a tremendously negative impact on businesses," he said.

He said businesses spent money to support their staff through the evacuation, and have experienced a loss of sales.

"Regardless of what you sell, nobody was here to buy it," he said.

Grey said many businesses also had loans from the pandemic that they were getting ready to pay off, when the unexpected evacuation took place.

"It is fair that the government put their money where their mouth is and help us to recover," he said, speaking of N.W.T. communities that have businesses that were impacted by wildfire this summer.

He said the entire N.W.T. was impacted even communities that didn't have to evacuate, as their supply chain was disrupted.

Heading into the future, Grey said he'd like to see the government take on a targeted industry-specific approach and look at industries sector by sector to find out what their needs are and how best to support them.

"We need to see the government now working for longevity, working to ensure that businesses stay in business."