I am a self-employed person and have been for 35 years. Although I am self-employed I have also kept three people employed, and all are paid above the minimum wage.
I have never look for, asked for or received any money from any arm of government or anyone else. I strictly finance my business on my cash flow and personal lines of credit.
This state of emergency takes my ability away to do that and I would assume many more small businesses like me are in the same situation.
I do not begrudge government helping minimum-wage earners because all people need a source of income. But that being the case, government should also step in and help small businesses.
In my case, with the interruption of my business because of the state of emergency, it will not only interrupt my income but also interrupt my ability to pay my employees.
With the economy in shambles as it was before the state of emergency, I think government must help small businesses also, because the repercussions are more people becoming unemployed.
Jerome Terry
Mount Pearl