1.If you’re a small business owner struggling to pay rent, this should perk you up quite a bit!
On Friday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the federal and provincial government have partnered together to lower small businesses rent by 75% for the month of April, May, and June for businesses who qualify.
Phillip Kim is the owner of Coast & Country Diner and Caterers in Cloverdale.
With a good portion of his customers seniors, they’ve been hit hard by COID-19 – only getting around ten customers a day if they’re lucky.
With a $6,000 rent payment every month, he says today’s announcement is welcome news.
“I kept talking to my wife about maybe shutting down but then you risk losing all your customers so the 75% help with rent will go a long way,” says Kim.
Businesses paying less than $50,000 a month in rent and have closed their doors, or companies who have seen a 70% drop in revenue since the pandemic hit.
2.The first Cloverdale Market Days set to happen May 30th has been cancelled due to COVID-19.
Cloverdale Business Improvement Association Executive Director Paul Oraziette confirmed the news on Twitter Friday morning.
“When you look at doing social distancing that requires security guards for supervision or having people monitor it which means you’d have to create an orderly flow to do something like that. It’s difficult to control how many people may show up because there’s no doors so it’s a very difficult environment to control and maneuver people. It’s physically possible but at great expense.”
Oraziette said he’s “cautiously optimistic” the rest of the market day events will happen this year.
Those dates are June 20th, July 18th, August 15th and September 19th.
3. If you get a threatening BC Hydro call – hang up!
That’s the message from BC Hydro who says its seen a 350% increase in scams this month compared to March.
There are two types floating around:
- Phone and email scam – Customer receives a call or bake pill from fraudsters threatening to disconnect their power if they don’t pay an overdue ball. Customers are then told to call a 1-877 number and while on the phone are asked to buy a pre-paid credit card or deposit money into a bitcoin ATM wallet.
- Phishing scam – Customers receive a text message that appears to be from BC Hydro, saying they are eligible for a refund. Customers are directed to click a link to submit their banking information for deposit.BC Hydro is reminding customers that right now they are not disconnecting customers power for non-payment during the pandemic and don’t collect credit card information over the phone, by email, or text.If you receive a suspicious email, text, or phone call, call BC Hydro immediately at 1 800 BCHYDRO (1 800 224 9376).3.