Rising rents are putting the squeeze on small businesses in Verdun | CBC News

After 11 years in business, Anne St-Hilaire is packing up. Her store, La Tienda — a travel agency and a purveyor of hiking equipment — is relocating from Wellington Street in Verdun to another street in the Montreal borough.

Last year, Wellington Street was voted the the “coolest street in the world,” and St-Hilaire, who hadn’t planned on moving, even after squeaking through the pandemic, says the need to reopen elsewhere felt like a “brick in the face,”

It came down to rent. 

St-Hilaire says her landlord wanted to hike her rent from $3,150 a month to $4,300 in 2024, more than she could pay. 

“My business is my baby. It’s my mission and my passion, but I’ve thought about closing. That’s for sure,” she said. 

In recent weeks, La Tienda isn’t the only store on Wellington in recent weeks whose owner has had to face a difficult decision.

On July 26, pastry shop Audacieuse Vanille, announced on Facebook it was temporarily closing to restructure its business after “months of fruitless negotiations with its new landlords.”

On June 11, Restaurant Well announced it was closing its doors after failing to find an agreement on its lease with its landlord. 

St-Hilaire and with some political leaders are calling for more lease protections for small- and medium-sized businesses in the province of Quebec.

Alejandra Zaga Mendez, the Québec Solidaire MNA for Verdun, describes the current lack of legislation for commercial leases as a “Wild West.”

She says several businesses in her borough have closed because of rent hikes, and that across Montreal, commercial renters — whether small business owners or community organizations — are feeling the pressure from a lack of rent controls. 

“There’s no legislation to support our small businesses once they have a notice to renew a lease. An owner can do anything once the lease is up to renewal,” Mendez told CBC.

To protect business owners, Mendez’s party is calling for the creation of standardized leases akin to what exists for residential leases. The party is also proposing a commercial lease registry to record all leases in the province.

Benjamin Rousse, a policy analyst at the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, says both proposals — standardized leases and a lease registry — should be carefully studied as possible actions to stabilize rent, as rent hikes shutter commercial spaces.

He said a CFIB survey last fall showed “28 percent of Quebec small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) … experienced a substantial increase in their rent.”

Rousse also said rent increases affect a wide variety of establishments.

“SMEs in Quebec have been trying to get back to normal after the pandemic. Now they have to deal with inflation, with labour shortages and now for many rent increases. So I think we need to have a big discussion with all bodies of government to [stabilize] the prices for the whole market,” said Rousse.

Rousse says building more commercial units would also help satisfy high demand and alleviate some of the pressure renters are facing. 

He also suggests renters consult a lawyer before signing a new commercial lease to make sure they fully understand what it is they are agreeing to.

CBC reached out to the Quebec Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for comment but did not hear back by publication time.