Small Toronto business says email error prevented them from collecting Ontario grant

A small business in Toronto says they have missed out on potentially thousands of dollars and may be forced to close after a technical error prevented them from collecting governmnt funding from the province.

Ontario announced the Small Business Support Grant to support industry owners during the pandemic as several different waves of COVID-19 caused lockdowns.

Sisters Renee Charles and Nicole Charles-Page co-own a restaurant along the Danforth called Sugar Kane and have struggled for the last two years.

“It’s been a roller coaster of ups and downs,” said Charles-Page. “The good part about everything is that we have so much support from our customers, but the hard part is just not getting that support that we need from the government.”

They receieved intial funding at the beginning of the pandemic through the rent and employee subsidy programs, but that money didn’t last too long.

The sisters late applied for the Ontario Small Business Grant, which was announced in January 2021. However, the group made an error when typing their email during the application process, so they didn’t get an authorization code.

The owners thought it would be an easy fix — that wasn’t the case.

After correcting their email in June 2021 and months of back and forth with bureaucrats, they recorded a phone call with a representative trying to help. The representative said their application was still in “draft mode” because of the incorrect email.

“Yes, we’ve been in draft mode since January. [We] finally got the email correct in June, but we still can’t get in,” replied Charles.

“Well, I’ve seen this before, and you are not alone in having this issue,” replied the representative.

The owners tell CityNews that they continued to try and finish the application but kept getting a technical difficulty error on the province’s website.

While they understand their initial error with the email, what frustrates them is the process to get it fixed was so long and difficult that it may have cost them the money they need for rent, groceries and wages.

The province says the application period for the grant closed in early April 2021.

“We needed this to continue. We’re trying to pull ourselves out of this hole that we’re in because of COVID and the last lockdown, which was in January,” said Charles-Page.

She said this last lockdown was one of the hardest they’ve dealt with.

“January is already a slow month for restaurants, and then to add on that, we couldn’t do dining, so we just had delivery and takeout very steadily,” explained Charles-Page. “We’re glad that everything is opening now, but we still need that help.”

The owners say even people coming back to their restaurant feel like they are playing catch up and not truly making a profit, so these funds would have helped tremendously. “It’s tough, and we’re really scared at this point that we’re gonna lose this restaurant that we’ve worked so hard for,” said Charles-Page.

Her message to the government was for them to stick to their word. “We’ve done nothing but comply with everything you’ve asked. And now we don’t have anything. There are so many other restaurants out there that are in the same boat, and they’re still waiting for help from the government,” said Charles-Page.

“We’re are lucky that we’re still here, but businesses are waiting. They’re waiting for these grants and have had to close down,” added Charles.

“We are grateful that we’re here but just want to stay.”

The two owners also tell CityNews they separately qualified for the Ontario Small Business Relief Grant and received funding. After the success of that application, the pair admit they’re at a loss after being denied help due to a simple email error.

A spokesperson for the Province’s Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade tells CityNews that the ministry can only review applications successfully submitted to the OSBSG portal.

While Sugar Kane missed out, the Ontario Small Business Support Grant did supply more than 110,000 small businesses with nearly $3 billion in funds.