Asks Region to provide compensation
Jan 25, 2010 - 02:15 PM
By Keith Gilligan
DURHAM -- An Uxbridge man unsuccessfully appealed to Durham Region for compensation after road construction affected his business last summer.
Robert Burrows, owner of Marie's Natural Gardens, said reconstruction of Brock Street West for a nine-week period meant lost sales of $7,200 for the organic food store.
"I support the idea of improving downtown Uxbridge. In the long term, it will have a beneficial impact on the town," Mr. Burrows told Regional council's finance committee on Wednesday.
"During the renovation, my business's sales figures were severely down over the previous year," he said. "It's an extremely strong burden for a small business to endure."
Mr. Burrows asked if the Region had "some kind of assistance or financial compensation" for businesses affected by infrastructure work.
"I have no issue with renovating the road. But, it's not right or necessary for a small business to pay the burden for road repairs," Mr. Burrows said. "I appeal to you to help us. We definitely need some kind of compensation.
"It's a very severe impact on me as a small businessman," he added.
Mr. Burrows suggested including money in future budgets to cover such requests.
"It's not fair the individual merchants bear the cost of what you're doing," he added.
Providing compensation would be "hugely precedent setting," said Marilyn Pearce, Scugog mayor and chairwoman of the committee. "Any time we do road reconstruction, we get concerns about the loss of business. No doubt, there's short-term pain."
Regional solicitor Brian Roy said there's no policy to compensate businesses.
Courts have ruled that "provided the work is done in reasonable time and there's reasonable access, there's no liability to the municipality," Mr. Roy noted.
"The situation is unfortunate," Regional Chairman Roger Anderson said.
"After the work, you might find business increases as people like to go down there," he said, adding he apologized for the loss of business.
"It's tough. We really did do everything in our power that access was maintained," Mr. Anderson said.
"So far, at any rate, things are starting to improve," Mr. Burrows stated.
"Once the road opened, it didn't initially make any difference," he said. "We're doing better at this point. It will take quite a while to get people to come downtown."
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