Ottawa councillor Jeff Leiper explains the strip mall conundrum

They're pretty awful, but the stats in the article don't support your assertion:

In Scarborough and increasingly here, those businesses are often diaspora-owned. They’re cultural and community hubs offering personal services, groceries, restaurants and more. In Toronto, there are more than 200 of these strip plazas (as they’re called there) that are 97% occupied right now. They depend on that plentiful parking to serve customers coming from across the city, and the space tends to be affordable.

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Those small enterprises are likely going to be challenged to afford the rents in a brand new, modern building. Even if they can secure a lease in the new building when it’s completed they’ll certainly struggle to find affordable space in which to temporarily re-locate during construction.