Vancouver businesses plead for financial help to survive Broadway Subway construction closure

Vancouver business owners, the city’s mayor and some councillors at a community townhall expressed frustration over an upcoming roadway closure for the Broadway Subway Project — with some wanting an interest-free loan to make up for a loss of income.

“Give us a fighting chance,” said Ron MacGillivray, the owner of Fable Diner & Bar, which is located right at the corner of Main Street and Broadway.

Since construction began on the province-delivered TransLink project in 2020 to expand the Millennium Line with a subway through the central Broadway area, his restaurant has been obscured at times with patrons and staff forced to endure noise and disruption.

“There's guests that are leaving the restaurant because it's so noisy,” he said.

MacGillivray said over the past three years visits to the restaurant have dropped more than 45 per cent and sales are down 30 per cent.

He and other nearby business owners are now worried that their predicament could get worse with Broadway set to close completely to vehicle traffic between Main and Quebec for four months in January, followed by another four months of traffic limited to one lane in each direction.

Tara Shayegan of Uphoria Yoga Inc. said at the townhall that her husband, whom she opened the studio with four months before the COVD-19 pandemic, was working a second job to keep the business afloat. She took on extra work as well.

“It’s been a challenge,” she said. “I’m not here to ask anyone to give me a hug, which is always nice, but just moving forward, any financial support would be needed.”

Mayor Ken Sim along with fellow ABC councillors and opposition councillors attended the townhall to listen to the business and community members.

“The rug has been pulled from local businesses that are in this area,” said Sim.

He pointed to the often extended timeline for the $2.83 billion dollar project, which has added two years to when it’s expected to finished, which is now 2027.

“The budget’s already $3 billion to build the subway,” he said. “A little bit of support for the local businesses around here isn’t a big thing to ask.”

Earlier Monday, Minister of Transportation and Transit Mike Farnworth told reporters at an unrelated news conference that compensation for businesses affected by public works, “is not something that any government in this province has done on infrastructure projects.”

He said the province is in contact with affected business owners and the closure was done in a way to be a brief as possible.

“That will be done twice as fast as it otherwise would have been,” he said about the need for the closure for crews to tear down a traffic deck — a temporary bridge — in place since the start of the project where a station is under construction.

Neither Farnworth or anyone from the province attended Monday night’s townhall in Mount Pleasant.

In 2018 a group of Cambie Street business owners were awarded thousands of dollars as compensation from a class-action lawsuit related to the construction of the Canada Line, which took place 10 years prior.

TransLink was successful in an appeal of that ruling however, calling for new trials for the businesses involved.