'Time-consuming and so exhausting': Restaurant owner fed up with minimum wage subsidy program
A local restaurant owner is speaking out over problems she's encountered applying for a provincial program aimed at helping small businesses offset the impact of the minimum wage hike.
Wendy May owns The Oakwood Café on Osborne Street.
After minimum wage jumped in October of 2022 from $11.95 to $13.50 per hour, she applied for the newly available provincial aid.
The subsidy program recently expanded its eligibility, and is now applicable to businesses with up to 100 employees who live and work in Manitoba. It covers a 50-cent/hour wage subsidy for up to 20 employees during a six-month period.
It's retroactive from Oct. 1 to March 31, 2023.
May said she has submitted her application seven times, detailing a tedious process of online paperwork that reset each time she was rejected.
“(Sunday) was kind of the final straw, where we knew we had done everything right because I spoke with someone who's doing the administration, and they went through everything with me. So we knew exactly what to do, exactly the information that had to be submitted,” May told CTV News Winnipeg in an interview.
Still, she received an email Sunday saying her application had been rejected.
May said she reached out to Families Minister Rochelle Squires and never heard back, and even went to the Maitoba Legislative Building to talk to newly appointed Labour Minister Jon Reyes, but couldn't get in to see him.
By Tuesday, she got a call saying her application had been approved.
“To be honest, the process has been so time-consuming and so exhausting. I don't know how people are persevering. I know we're not the only business that's having troubles accessing the funding that is available,” she said.
The province told CTV News Winnipeg its minimum wage adjustment program administration team is responsible for reviewing and verifying all documentation required to support an online application.
Each employer is required to submit a new application for each two-week pay period.
It noted applications will be rejected if the supporting documentation isn't complete or is missing information, but businesses can resubmit once that documentation has been obtained.
As of Tuesday, more than 1,500 online applications had been submitted.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Fluid in eye cells can 'boil' if you watch the eclipse without protection: expert
Millions of people in parts of Eastern and Atlantic Canada will be able to see the rare solar eclipse happening on April 8. But they should only look up if they have proper eye protection, experts say.
CRA no longer requiring 'bare trust' reporting in 2023 tax return
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
NEW More unauthorized products for skin, sexual enhancement, recalled: Here are the recalls of this week
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency recalled various items this week, including torches, beef biltong and unauthorized products related to skin care and sexual enhancement.
Where is the worst place for allergy sufferers in Canada?
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
Do these exercises for core strength if you can't stomach doing planks
Planks are one of the most effective exercises for strengthening your midsection, as they target all of your major core muscles: the transverse abdominis, rectus abdominis, external obliques and internal obliques. Yet despite the popularity of various 10-minute plank challenges, planking is actually one of the most dreaded core exercises, according to many fitness experts.
He didn't trust police but sought their help anyway. Two days later, he was dead
Jameek Lowery was among more than 330 Black people who died after police stopped them with tactics that aren’t supposed to be deadly, like physical restraint and use of stun guns, The Associated Press found.
Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
Polar ice is melting and changing Earth's rotation. It's messing with time itself
One day in the next couple of years, everyone in the world will lose a second of their time. Exactly when that will happen is being influenced by humans, according to a new study, as melting polar ice alters the Earth’s rotation and changes time itself.
Sunshine list: These were the Ontario public sector's highest earners in 2023
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.