Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner released the following statement:

“The Premier ignored the warning signs and now he is ignoring the proof.

I am truly puzzled that he is sticking by his wait-and-see attitude when it comes to the fate of Ontario’s small businesses.

For weeks, advocates like myself warned about the shortcomings of this rent program because it leaves tenants at the mercy of landlords.

And now, with only 4% of eligible small businesses being covered by the program, the Premier is still waiting to act.

The longer he waits, the more small businesses will be served with eviction notices.

Vague threats to landlords will not cut it when we could be taking decisive action like other provinces to ban commercial evictions.

But once again, the Premier is waiting for the problem to grow worse before doing what’s needed.”

source: media release, Green Party of Ontario