City-wide campaign urges Mississauga residents to shop and eat locally

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Published October 1, 2021 at 11:39 am

The Mississauga Board of Trade (MBOT) has launched an aggressive three-month campaign to help small businesses across the city recover from the devastating financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Shop Local Mississauga, supported by the federal government and unveiled in partnership with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, encourages residents to shop and spend money locally. 

“In short, everyone is enthusiastically encouraged to shop, dine and enjoy Mississauga local,” MBOT president and CEO Trevor McPherson said in introducing the initiative on Wednesday. “This is a promotional campaign over the next three months to encourage residents to support local businesses.” 

McPherson said many Mississauga businesses were forced to close for long periods of time over the past 18 months, and they suffered “unfathomable financial impacts through no fault of their own.” 

And it’ll take time to recover. 

“It’s easy for us to think businesses are opening back up, things are okay…but for these businesses, it’s going to take a good, long while to be out of the woods and they need our support right now,” said McPherson, adding the enthusiastic support from campaign partners including Mississauga business improvement associations in Port Credit, Streetsville, Cooksville, Malton and Clarkson Village will help the effort a great deal. 

Square One Shopping Centre, Erin Mills Town Centre and the Heartland district, in addition to the City of Mississauga’s Economic Development Office and Tourism Mississauga are also on board, McPherson noted.  

Mayor Bonnie Crombie said that in addition to the obvious health benefits of having as many people as possible fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the financial benefits are also great. 

“We’re at 80 per cent fully vaccinated (in Peel) and I’m committed to getting to 90 per cent. That will ensure we have no more lockdowns or restrictions that devastated so many businesses, especially non-essential businesses, the last year-and-a-half,” she said. 

McPherson said the pandemic has had the most significant health and economic impact of anything the country has faced in more than 100 years. 

“In some cases, government financial assistance programs have helped these businesses through the worst of it. Some have accelerated plans to go digital, and this will serve them well going forward,” he said. “But nothing, as we know, beats serving your customers and experiencing business of your choice in person, right at the place of business. It’s time to bring people back to local businesses, which continue to contribute so much to the culture of Mississauga.” 

For more information, visit shoplocalmississauga.ca. 

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