A reopening guide for the business community is receiving lots of praise for its guidance during COVID-19.
David Duplisea, CEO of The Saint John Region Chamber of Commerce said the Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton chambers worked on it together.
“The three chambers, we were invited and participated in a national webcast presenting the model on how the three of us worked together and how we managed to get a reopening and recovery guide before the government did,” he said.
Duplisea said it is important to have some kind of a recovery guide during the pandemic.
“Businesses in New Brunswick are facing a number of unprecedented external and internal pressures on their operations,” he said.
“As this pandemic continues, many businesses are finding it more and more difficult to absorb fixed costs as revenues have been hit dramatically. Hence it has never been more important that businesses get back to doing business.”
Duplisea said the guide also includes links for certain sectors such as daycares and transportation, retail and construction to make it a more comprehensive guide.
“Businesses in the province require a clear direction of what is mandatory and what is suggested by governments in order for them to get back to doing business,” said John Wishart, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Moncton.
“This guide will help them on the road to recovery.”
Krista Ross, CEO of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce said businesses are looking forward to getting back to what they do best for their customers and clients.
“They also want to make sure that they are operating safely and following the Public Health advice that has been so successful at fighting COVID-19 in our province,” she said.
The guide includes information regarding personal protection equipment.
“It covers everything from what kind of awareness language you have to use and what some of the pre-screening tools would be, what are the laws around the physical distancing and cleaning and disinfecting and personal hygiene and things like that,” said Duplisea.
He said businesses are cautiously optimistic although they are concerned about how consumer-driven habits will impact the community.
“They were looking for leadership or someplace to go for a consistent and trustworthy type of message. There’s all kinds of different organizations and narratives out there,” he said.
Duplisea said it’s a learning curve for everyone and it will be up to us to figure out what the new normal will look like.
