The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is calling on provincial governments to adopt stay-open strategies now, so any possible resurgences of COVID-19 do not lead to further business closures.
Canadian Federation of Independent Business Executive Vice-President, Laura Jones says provinces have done a good job of putting reopening plans in place, but very few have stated their intention to stay open and released detailed plans on how they’ll do that.
“The last 16 months have been incredibly hard on small business owners, not only financially, but emotionally as well. They can’t take more lockdowns. Provincial governments have the opportunity to reassure businesses that lockdowns are an extraordinary measure that will only be used now as a last resort by announcing a clear policy that keeping things open is a priority.”
Jonathan Alward, Director of the Prairie Region says Many of Manitoba’s small businesses have been locked down for about half of the last year and it will still take 25 months on average for the province’s businesses to fully recover.
“We can’t go back to that in the fall. Small businesses need to know that they will be allowed to remain open going forward.”
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business claims 85 percent of Manitoba business owners say they want the government to adopt a stay open strategy to avoid further lockdowns.
