By Sarah Osborne
Business owners at 240 Sparks St. say they are frustrated the government won’t give them long-term leases that would allow them to sell their businesses.
Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) owns the mall, which makes up the lower levels of the C. D. Howe building. Three years ago, Public Works announced plans to renovate. They decided that while they waited for money from the Treasury Board to pay for the project, they wouldn’t give businesses leases any longer than two years.
Maureen Hodgins, the owner of Greetings, a card store on the first floor of 240 Sparks St., says she has been unable to sell her business because of the lease situation.
“If I were younger and planning to stay here, I would just let it ride. But I’m not younger, and I do plan to retire.”
Hodgins says her store used to have a five-year lease with the government, with the option to renew for another five years. That lease expired four years ago. Since then, the government has only offered a one-year lease with the option to renew for one year.
She says because she has no long-term lease, people are not willing or are unable to buy her business. Hodgins says the inability to sell her business has affected her long-term retirement plans.
Hodgins says she has almost sold her business twice, but plans fell through both times due to the lack of a long-term lease. She says until she sells her business and makes a profit, she will not have enough savings to retire.
“If I can’t sell then there are only two options: continue in the business or close down,” Hodgins says.
Public Works says the decision to renovate is close to being made, and is likely to come in the next couple of months.
“PWGSC wants to be as accommodating as it can be under the circumstances,” says Denis Labossière, media relations officer for Public Works.
Hodgins says the government is not running the mall as a profitable business, but as a government building. This in turn is affecting businesses at 240 Sparks St.
“I think the whole problem is the government shouldn’t be in independent business because they have no concept that if you have bills that are coming in now, you have to pay them right away,” Hodgins says.
Labossière says PWGSC, which owns many buildings across Canada, employs experts in commercial leasing.
“These people are well versed with the realities of our commercial tenants,” says Labossière.
He says the government is doing the same thing that any privately run mall would do in its position.
Paul Goulet has initiated the Eaglet Small Merchants Business Counsel, to help the affected businesses lobby the government for a better long-term lease deal. He says his wife owns a café in the mall and is having the same problems as Hodgins.
Goulet represents 10 businesses at the mall. He says most merchants he represents are immigrants who own businesses in the food court. He says they feel uncomfortable talking to the media, and have turned to him to help lobby the government. He has also hired a lawyer to help resolve the lease situation.
Goulet says the business he created is a kind of pilot project, which will eventually branch out and try to help other business owners who have run into problems with the government.
Hodgins is not formally associated with Goulet, and says she is only concerned with one thing.
“To me the lease is what we’re lobbying for. It’s simply about fair play with the government,” Hodgins says.