By Annika Graf
Ottawa businesses have given up fighting for compensation for financial losses suffered during the G-20 Summit held in Ottawa more than a year ago.
According to Gerry LePage, executive director of the Bank Street Promenade BIA, businesses in Centretown and around the Byward Market lost “millions of dollars” during the November 2001 summit, which was accompanied by protests and some vandalism.
Last September, the federal government informed 49 Ottawa businesses they would not receive any compensation because they are located outside the security perimeters that were established for the meeting, held at the Government Conference Centre on Rideau Street.
“It was decided on a case-by-case basis. The guidelines were clear and none of these Ottawa businesses fit into it,” says Christopher Heggtveit, a Finance Department spokesman.
According to LePage, the vast majority of Ottawa businesses with shops outside the designated area gave up the claim for compensation.
“The G-20 Summit only lasted for two days but it had residual effects over a week,” says LePage.
“Three weeks after the G-20, the government told the businesses that something would be coming but nothing ever happened.”
Business owners say there is little more they can do.
“We have written letters and letters and are not willing to do anything more,” says Eric Schwartz, owner of Ottawa Leather Goods on Sparks Street, who lost 80 per cent of his business during the meeting.
Mitch Miyazaki, owner of the Karatsu Bakeshop on Bank Street, agrees. “The government is not going to compensate. That’s the way it is.”
He also suffered losses because customers were scared away by the demonstrations.
“Compensation policy depends on the level of security of the meeting,” says Fred Jaakson, general director of the assurance group for Consulting and Audit Canada, which administers compensation payments for the Finance Department.
But businesses can’t do much to prepare for similar problems in the future. “We will deal with it when it happens.You cannot plan for something like that,” says Schwartz.
The police department tries to plan for such events months in advance.
“We respond according to the situation and adjust to the information and needs that we have,” explains Const. Nathalie Deschenes, an RCMP spokeswoman.
“We don’t have a set-up plan for all events but . . . we have to wait for the real situation.”
But some say such meetings shouldn’t be held in cities at all.
“Government should hold such conferences in remote areas, if they wish to be host of those events,” says LePage.
He will raise the issue at the Ontario Business Improvement Association Conference in Toronto next month.
“I am going to bring it to the floor and we will form a committee,” he says. “It cannot continue like this. Not to a degree that it affects the livelihood of businesses.”
LePage says it is as a major injustice that there was a compensation package for businesses affected by the G-8 Summit in Alberta last June but that Ottawa businesses will receive nothing.
LePage wants affected parties to sit down together prior to events like this. “We need far more face to face dialogue in these kinds of affairs.”