Many Canadian small businesses are hurting during COVID-19. According to a Statistics Canada survey filled out by more than 12,600 Canadian businesses, smaller centres are facing a higher downturn.
While businesses with more than 100 employees saw a decline in revenues in the first quarter of 2020 of under 40 per cent, smaller businesses had a much higher decline. The average business that employs 1-4 people saw revenue decline nearly 60 per cent compared to last year.
The Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce is one resource local businesses are using to help navigate new safety rules and a shifting business landscape. While no general meetings have been held since the pandemic reached Manitoba and Saskatchewan, co-president Kory Eastman said the chamber has been hard at work the past few months. The Chamber serves both Manitoba and Saskatchewan members, meaning double the work to keep track of provincial programs.
“The amount of information about available assistance programs can be daunting,” he said in an email response.
“Our relationships with both the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce and Saskatchewan Chambers of Commerce provincially provide us access to some of the most up to date information, which we have shared through our email distribution list to our membership.”
Eastman said the chamber hosted a teleconference session to show businesses how to apply for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), the business counterpart to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).
No cases of COVID-19 have been detected in northern Manitoba for three months.
“We would caution that even as things begin returning to normal, that people should not become complacent to the need to take extra precautions,” Eastman said.
“These changes in occupancy are for everyone’s protection and we have been fortunate not to see an outbreak as other areas of the country have. This good fortune, I believe, is in large part to the everyday efforts and understanding of the people in our community.”
Eastman said he expects some new changes, like plexiglass barriers, to remain moving forward and hopes that occupancy limits will continue to loosen as time moves on.
“We believe that customer bases may change for many businesses - for example, in the tourism area as we see more visitors from the south of our provinces as opposed to those from the United States, as people change how they spend their travel dollars,” he said.
As for the Chamber, Eastman said the group’s major annual fundraiser, the radio auction, should be good to go as there are no large gatherings taking place during the auction.
The chamber’s executive has continued to meet over the summer.
Eastman said he hopes to return to in-person regular meetings by the fall, if the Chamber can meet all social distancing requirements.
