Another retailer in Burnaby’s biggest mall is closing up for good.
And it’s one of the city’s oldest businesses. J&M Coin and Jewellery has been at Metropolis at Metrotown for 35 years, opening up in 1986, according to a posting on its website. But now it’s in the middle of a closing-out sale offering hundreds of pieces of new jewellery.
This closure is one of a long line of closures in the mall amid COVID-19 financial impacts. Others include Godiva chocolates, Rocky Mountain Soap Company, David’s Tea, Microsoft, Pink and Frank & Oak.
The company’s website said it will retain its Vancouver location and that the sale will continue to April 30.
The news comes as the Burnaby Board of Trade – Burnaby’s chamber of commerce and largest business association – is calling for the provincial government to renew three tax cuts and deferrals it introduced last year and which are set to expire.
The Burnaby Board of Trade is recommending three specific tax policies to be renewed to help bolster the business community and the economic recovery in 2021, specifically: cutting business property taxes again, delaying a planned increase in the carbon tax, and providing deferrals of employer health tax payments - all of which were implemented only for 2020.
“We know of businesses where their property tax bill is as big as their rent – thousands and thousands per month,” said Paul Holden, president and CEO of the BBoT. “Until such time as the province can fix the underlying issue of ‘highest and best use valuation’ which is causing these huge bills, we would like to see last year’s reduction in property taxes renewed for 2021.”
