Manitoba Liberals complain of favouritism after future PC candidate's business supported with $500K grant
Good Local co-founder Obby Khan and chamber of commerce say money helped hundreds of local businesses
No business received more money from Manitoba's "buy local" campaign in late 2020 than Good Local.
The Manitoba Liberals say that's problematic because Good Local co-founder Obby Khan is now running for office for the Progressive Conservatives — the same government that provided him the cash through a chamber of commerce.
"Look, some of this is just something that has to be explained by the PCs and by Obby Khan, whether there was some kind of political favouritism involved," said Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont.
"You cannot be playing favourites in a pandemic."
Khan, who is running for the Tories in this month's Fort Whyte byelection, helped create the online delivery service Good Local at the start of the pandemic. The online portal allows shoppers to browse a variety of products and services from Manitoba businesses, bundle them together, and have them delivered to their door.
A provincial news release from December 2020 announced Good Local would benefit from the province's $1.5-million commitment to the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce to support shop local efforts, while some businesses were prevented from selling non-essential products due to public health orders at the time.
'It doesn't pass the smell test'
Good Local received a $500,000 grant through the program, the Manitoba Liberals revealed on Friday through a freedom of information request.
The next year, Khan, a former Winnipeg Blue Bomber and current restaurant owner, was endorsing Heather Stefanson as Progressive Conservative leader. He is now the party's candidate in the upcoming Fort Whyte byelection.
"It doesn't pass the smell test," Lamont said.
But Chuck Davidson, Manitoba Chambers of Commerce president, said nothing untoward has happened.
"It was not political because I know for a fact it was something that I brought to government as an initiative that we thought was going to be critical as businesses were in the middle of a lockdown," Davidson said.
He said he suggested Good Local to the government, describing it as an established platform to quickly sell the products of businesses without an online selling presence.
Before government funding, Good Local had 38 vendors and was producing $40,000 in sales. Within a couple months, the infusion of capital led Good Local to a total of 388 vendors, resulting in almost $850,000 in sales and a further $147,000 in gift card sales, Davidson said.
He adds Good Local created 27 jobs as it expanded, nine of which became full-time positions.
"Looking back at the results in terms of what we were able to achieve with that, I would do it again in a heartbeat," Davidson said, "because I think it did exactly what we needed it to do."
Khan credited the Liberals with bringing attention to Good Local's success.
"It's really unfortunate that they want to be negative and take this approach," he said of the Liberals.
"It's easy to be negative. What's not easy is taking action, and that's exactly what I did during the pandemic," by creating Good Local.
At the time of the province's funding announcement, Khan said he had no aspirations of holding political office.
The Progressive Conservative Party called on the Liberals to apologize for criticizing the good work of Khan, saying he supported hundreds of businesses through the pandemic.
Lamont argued the government should have considered other businesses for the pool of money, suggesting the province may have been trying to win over Khan.
"If it's a great business, why can't it stand on its own two feet?" he said. "Why does it have to have $500,000 in public money that's in a non-repayable grant? It's a gift of money."
He said other businesses had to take on massive amounts of debt during the pandemic.
Khan is running for the Tories in the Fort Whyte byelection against Willard Reaves of the Liberals and Trudy Schroeder of the NDP.
Reaves, speaking to CBC News on an unrelated subject Friday afternoon, said he was unaware the Liberals were demanding an explanation from government surrounding Good Local's funding.
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