Kristian Alexander spent the last six years building up clientele in his 24-hour private fitness centre in St. John's, and then stood by helpless as the COVID-19 pandemic shut it all down.

Now Alexander doesn't know if he will be able to keep paying rent on Inshape Fitness's space on O'Leary Avenue 

"We really don't know where the money is supposed to come from, because we don't have any coming in," he said.

Like many small business operators trying to make it through the pandemic, Alexander is looking for the government to help out. Without some form of rent relief he doesn't know how businesses such as his will be able to open their doors again when the COVID cloud finally lifts. 

"I've got a mortgage, I've got a child, I've got a family to support," he said. 

While there is emergency aid he can apply for to make sure his family has food on the table, the rent is still due at the beginning of each month.

Alexander said loans for small businesses won't cut it either. "Either way that is money you still got to pay back, which is going to be difficult if not impossible for most businesses to do," he said. 

Alexander wants a rent and mortgage pause, which he believes is the only way to prevent thousands of businesses across the country from declaring bankruptcy.

"The only thing that they can really do is to put a total freeze on it, which takes the stress off the landlords, which takes the stress off the tenants," he said. "And everyone can relax and focus on staying healthy and social distancing and wait until this is all over."

Federal bailout in order to survive

Gaylynne Gulliver of Downtown St. John's says her association's members are saying the same sorts of things, because rent is not cheap.

"As resilient as downtown businesses are and as much as they're trying to change their business operations to survive all this, we need to see something for rent," said Gulliver. "That's not going away." 

In Gulliver's opinion, the only answer is a federal bailout. 

Byron Murphy, owner of Byron's Clothing for Men on Water Street, is also calling for some sort of federal action. 

Murphy, a veteran of the downtown retail scene for decades, has survived numerous ups and downs. However, he has not seen anything like what is unfolding now, which comes on the heels of a blizzard in January that triggered a weeklong state of emergency. 

Byron said while the banks are giving a pretty good break with interest-only payments on mortgages, more needs to be done. 

"The bottom line is as we run out of the little stash that we have and it comes down to an interest payment on our mortgages or keeping the business insurance on the building and gas and groceries and everything else, the decision has to be made," he said.

"Certainly the interest payment is probably not going to get paid either."  

Murphy said the federal government and the banking industry need to come up with a plan — preferably one that allows interest payments to be paid later.