craig-mcmillan-blog

[craig-mcmillan-blog]

Mr Trudeau, How can I mourn the death of the small entrepreneur class?

Mr Trudeau,

I am caught in a dilemma. How do I mourn the passing of the heart of Canada?

I realize that the passing is still in progress but feel that the mourning should start now, before my capacity to feel anything but numbness becomes a fact.

I am witnessing the end of an era, and I don’t know how I feel, watching businesses succumb to a slow agonizing death as they struggle to pay fixed costs that don’t go away, added credit they cannot afford, rent deferrals upping future rent, and reductions in the earnings they need to survive.

The battle is heroic but in the end, the remainder, without income assistance will likely fail, fulfilling the death of the small business entrepreneurial class in Canada.

I feel I should mourn, those that have already perished, those that will perish, and those thousands of people left behind by their loss. I feel I should mourn for those who invested and can never invest again, having lost all that they owned.

I know that you have not experienced such utter and shocking loss, but I know you have the capacity to mourn for those who have. Please join me in mourning now, for you surely will have a front seat to our demise. 

Remember, you are about to proceed to an economic rebuild without the support of the smaller entrepreneurs of this country.

I guess given this fact, I should also mourn for you.

Please tell me how to go about mourning, for surely I do not have enough capacity to understand how it should be done properly. We will all do some mourning, if we have not started already.

[craig-mcmillan-blog]

We will only recover if...

As we observe the impacts of the Pandemic disaster which has taken the world to new levels of uncertainty, we as Canadians, rely on those who work for us as elected leaders, to do the right things.

So far we have seen assistance to the individual who has lost their place temporarily in the economy of today. We have also seen a move on the part of our elected officials to make cash available to business using credit.

I applaud the effort so far, but from you, the employees of the electorate, we need to see more. These next few weeks will determine what we write on your performance review in the next election.

I doubt that you would find many small businesses applauding a heavier debt load, to provide a rather small boost, when we really require a rather large one.

I know there is a tendency on the part of government to minimize it’s own exposure using mechanisms rather than outright capital investment, now is not a good time to immerse yourself in that kind of thinking. Remind yourself that now is the time for PandEconomics not business as usual.

In response to the Virus you have already set in place the very mechanism needed by small business to continue at an idle then continue forward when the green light finally appears. That mechanism is the CERB which could be extended to provide 15 to 20 percent of small business revenue, allowing survival, just as the benefit allows people who are affected to continue with their lives. Hmm! CERBB?

If we are planning to not participate in the greatest recession to ever hit the Globe, you had better pull up your big boy/girl pants and make sure that doesn’t happen.

We, as Canadians, know you can’t put out a forest fire with a 1000 litre water tank and a garden hose.

I may not have too much left when this is over, but I will certainly still have a vote. I will vote for someone who I think protects Canada regardless of how tough that may be. If you are that person, prove it!

[craig-mcmillan-blog]

Pandeconomics - or how to save the small business entrepreneur

This message is specifically intended for the Canadian Government but has application to all.

The time to get money to the entrepreneur is now! Governments across the globe need to realize that not providing sufficient support to the small business sector will result in a whole class of people who can no longer help drive the economy.

When this emergency ends or at least lessens, the small business owners who currently provide employment to a large portion of all employed persons will no longer be a factor in restarting. Many will be bankrupt, have a credit load that will cause them to fail quickly, will no longer be eligible for credit, do not have anything left to start, or will simply have lost their appetite for risk and will not participate. I will fall into one or more of these categories.

In order to Idle the economy rather than stop it all together, governments need to provide the entire economy with at least the minimum needed to survive. When we stop providing service we can’t stop paying bills such as rent. The landlords and others relying on income from investments in housing or supplying small business cannot be the subsidy providers for the government.

Suppliers of all services are by in large adapting to the reality that their income is drying up as well. The best way they can be subsidized is for their customers to have the amounts needed to pay them.

I urge the Canadian Government to take an approach which allows a holistic approach to the economic reality of today. PandEconomics is not the norm but neither is Pandemic. We need to have a strong and imaginative response to the crisis at hand, the standard, “I’ll provide credit” will not do. Direct injection of capital to small business seems the only possible solution to me.

At this point the long view is the only view.

My Opinion

Craig McMillan

[craig-mcmillan-blog]

An open letter to the Government of Canada

I am one of the unlucky restauranteurs who has closed in order to mitigate the effects of Covid-19.

I have only been open a short while and I was just beginning to see some signs that eventually the enterprise would see a profit. I invested all I had, my retirement savings, cash, and borrowed money as well.

I find myself facing the fact that if the government does not change the way it is “helping” small business that I will probably be bankrupt at the end of the month. I know that all of you feel that the extraordinary expenditures being made, will be effective and save the economy from completely failing altogether. But your current plan may not be the best way to approach in my opinion.

Please consider directly addressing needs of businesses like mine. View the smaller corporate citizen as just that, a citizen, by providing capital so that small business can hibernate for the crisis without linking us to additional debt and the banks. Clearly it is more important to rescue small business than to enable large banks to realize profits in the longer term.

I only have 18 staff currently, but if they have no jobs at the end of this crisis we have simply contributed to a new problem. I venture that each dollar spent at the bottom of the economy has a greater effect than if injected into the top. The multiplier effect of the rent, and bills being paid by affected business travels upward to landlords, service companies and so forth. This is a trickle up effect of direct aid.

I urge you not to use credit as a mechanism for a successful restart of the economy. Banks have no appetite for risk and even the BDC charges a premium when lending to new business essentially charging them more, when they really need to pay less. Large banks limit resources for new business and sometimes cause failures rather than supporting success, because unless the government is guaranteeing credit, they will not expose themselves. The big banks are profit generators not business partners, even though their advertising tells us otherwise.

Please take this letter to heart. I will do anything to keep operating my beautiful restaurant with my equally beautiful staff, even accepting capital with additional strings attached. I believe however, that Canadians will be better off, if your approach is modified to allow business to flourish rather than perish.

I appreciate that you want to help me, and others like me, I disagree that your current direction will provide the best possible result. Only an injection directly to small business will allow our economy to rebound quickly.

–

Submitted by @time-tell