Opposition parties in Fort Whyte by-election questioning grant given to Good Local

The NDP candidate in the Fort Whyte by-election is raising questions about a provincial grant given to a company owned by the Progressive Conservative candidate. Trudy Schroeder was referring to a provincial grant given to P.C. candidate Obby Khan’s company, ‘Good Local.’

“It raises questions of fairness to other entrepreneurs within the Exchange District and within our city in terms of access, and who has the ability to build businesses with these kinds of assets during this time period,” said Schroeder.

Last week, the Manitoba Liberal Party came forward with information it obtained through a Freedom of Information request showing Good Local received $500,000, a third of the available funding through the province’s, ‘Shop Local’ campaign in late 2020.

Khan is a co-founder of Good Local. According to the company’s website, it was started to, “make it easy for local buyers and sellers to reach each other.”

Schroeder is calling for transparency, wanting to know how funding was used and how it benefitted other businesses.

Some Winnipeg shop owners, like Kim Bialkoski, who owns Preserve by Flora and Farmer, are asking why other companies were not offered the same opportunities as Good Local and question why funding wasn’t spread out equally.

"I want to know what grant he applied for because, as far I understand, this funding wasn't available to anybody else, and that's where the problem really is. It's not a grant - it's a gift,” said Bialkoski.

Khan said Good Local received the funding after it applied the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce.

“So the Chamber looked at that proposal, weighed the validity of it, and said, we're going to allocate X amount of funds to Good Local. And it was a reimbursement grant as well. It was not a gift. It was not $500,000 to Obby Khan," he said.

Khan said Good Local has helped nearly 450 local businesses sell goods through its online portal, generating about $1.3 million for business owners.

The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce told CTV News the program wasn’t designed to dole out money to individual businesses.

President and CEO Chuck Davidson said their advice to the government was to support an existing platform such as Good Local to help as many businesses as possible.