MPP Daisy Wai hosts Ontario Small Business Minister at Virtual Roundtable in Richmond Hill to Look for Ways to Help Small Businesses During COVID-19
Richmond Hill-Today, MPP Wai led an online town hall focused on alleviating concerns and answering questions for the small business community of Richmond Hill, particularly as many sectors of the economy are preparing for an anticipated return to business. The distinguished guest for the Town Hall was MPP Prabmeet Sarkaria, who also concurrently serves as Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction and has an educational background specializing in finance. Those who attended the town hall also had considerable input for their questions from Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MPP Michael Parsa, of whom has served as the Parliamentary Assistant to the President of the Treasury Board since July 2019.
All three members made it clear that they sympathize with small business owners across the province, both from a professional level and a personal level. Each member also stressed two key takeaways for everyone in attendance; the government will do everything in its power to support them at this time, and that same level of support will carry forward once the economy opens up. They also collectively expressed how crucial they believe direct input from the small business community is to them at this stage of planning to rebuild Ontario’s economy.
“It is critical that communities across Ontario have a chance to provide their insights and feedback to the provincial government as we continue our roadmap to recovery, this is why I am very pleased Minister Sarkaria was able to hear from our community,”said Richmond Hill MPP Daisy Wai.
"Small businesses, like these in Richmond Hill, are vital to our communities and our local economy – whether that’s the hardware store in Hillcrest or a restaurant in Beverley Acres,” said Small Business and Red Tape Reduction Minister, Prabmeet Sarkaria.“Our small business owners know better than anyone what it takes to create jobs, jumpstart growth, and get our economy moving again - this is why it is vitally important to draw on their strengths, expertise and know-how.”
Wednesday’s virtual roundtable gave Richmond Hill’s small business community the opportunity to participate in the government-wide effort to help businesses weather the COVID-19 pandemic and provided local business owners to identify specific challenges and potential solutions for the government to consider.
Minister Sarkaria is one of the members of Ontario’s Jobs and Recovery Committee, a task force dedicated to developing the staged action plan on how to move Ontario forward as it deals with the COVID-19 pandemic. Feedback from this and other provincial roundtables will help inform that committee and its necessary and critical work ahead.
This online town hall was the third and final in a series of town halls being hosted by MPP Wai this month. Full-audio recordings have been made for each town hall and are available by request. To receive the link for the any of the three virtual town halls, please contact the office of MPP Wai at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.