Business owner sues province over lost revenue from Broadway subway construction

For 12 years, Greens Organic and Natural Market has managed to succeed as a small, neighborhood-focused and locally owned grocery store competing against big national brands in Kitsilano.

But since work began on the Broadway subway expansion last year, bike racks and street parking have disappeared. Large metal fences have gone up between the road and the grocery store, and there is constant construction noise.

Co-owner Sentheepan Senthivel says as a result, customers are staying away and business is down 40 per cent.

“As much as people want to support us, they can only do so much when the accessibility is cut off and it’s taking them half an hour instead of 10 minutes to get to our store,” he said.

Senthivel figures he’s lost about $1 million in revenue, so he’s filed a civil lawsuit against the provincial government.

“If you’re going to dig a hole and it’s for the greater good of everybody, don’t make a few people your cannon fodder or collateral damage, it’s not fair for them,” Senthivel said. “When you take away accessibility, when you take away people’s ability to do business, the only solution is financial support.”

The civil lawsuit is reminiscent of the class action filed by dozens of businesses who were impacted by Canada Line construction. Leonard Schein is one of the representive claimants, and says that legal action is still ongoing more than a decade later.

“Lawsuits are so expensive, they take so long. We sued in 2009, and we have been through five court cases, and we have one more to go,” said Shein.

After all that, the Cambie business owners will likely only get relief on a year’s worth of lease payments.

“What happened was the provincial government passed a law that for things done for the public good, people could not sue on that,” said Shein, who believes Senthivel and other Broadway business owners deserve compensation, but doubts they’ll get it from the province.

“When the Canada Line was constructed, it was the BC Liberal government in power, and the NDP who represented Cambie were always against what they were doing and saying we should be supporting these businesses. And then the NDP gets in power, and they do exactly the same thing. They actually appealed our court victory, so they were absolutely no different,” said Shein.

The Ministry of Transportation would not comment on the new lawsuit about the Broadway Line, but in a statement said: “To date, the project team has interacted with Greens Market (email, phone calls, meetings) on over 100 occasions. We’ve ensured that businesses on Broadway are open and accessible during construction, including pedestrian access for people of all abilities.”

The statement also pointed out that most of the work on the Broadway subway expansion involves tunnelling underground, as opposed to the “cut and cover” used during construction on the Canada Line.

Senthivel says that’s not the case in front of Green’s Organic and Natural Market. “It’s a cut and cover in front of our store, and in front of five other locations along the broadway corridor,” he said. He’s worried his business and others won’t survive to see the subway line open in 2025.

The grocery store owner hopes the lawsuit gets the government’s attention, and wants to sent a message directly to David Eby.

“You’re going to be the premier of this province, and this is how you conduct yourself. You don’t support your local business in your neighborhood,” Senthivel said. “This is the time for you to step up to bat and provide adequate support.”