PORT HAWKESBURY – A local small-business owner is grateful for the support she has received from her customers around the Strait Area and her colleagues around the province, after the hair salon owner received a letter from her landlord insisting she continue to pay her business’s rent and return to work in short order, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ashley Taylor operates Cutting Edge Salon and Boutique in the Port Hawkesbury Shopping Centre, a property owned by Montreal-based Teulon Development. Taylor shut down her business in late March to comply with restrictions set out by the provincial government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Returning to the Cutting Edge property the following Monday to carry out some painting and renovations, Taylor was surprised to find a letter from Teulon Development taped to the glass door at her salon’s entrance. The letter described Taylor’s decision to temporarily close her business as a default on her lease agreement with the mall owners, and ordered her to continue paying her monthly rental fees.

The letter also insisted that Teulon Development is providing every possible means of keeping its properties and businesses sanitized to deal with the potential presence of COVID-19, and closes with the statement: “We eagerly look forward to resuming as normal with our lives as possible.”

Taylor took issue with the assertion that she would not continue to make her rent payments simply because, as with all other hair salons across Nova Scotia, she had temporarily closed her business in compliance with a government order.

While Taylor gained no further ground in discussions with Port Hawkesbury Shopping Centre management or Teulon Development officials, she was heartened to receive immediate support from Cutting Edge customers and fellow salon owners from around Atlantic Canada. She also received media coverage from across the province when she alerted the press to her concerns.

Even though she would later suggest that her business was losing $30,000 for every day of the closure, Taylor would re-open Cutting Edge in late May as Nova Scotia slowly reduced its restrictions on businesses across the province. This allowed Taylor to re-hire her staff of three, which she laid off immediately following the late-March shutdown.