Retailers keep safety top of mind as stores reopen,
Economy can’t afford to be ‘forced back’ into lockdown if reopening is rushed
The reopening of Ontario’s economy during the COVID-19 pandemic will have to be done slowly and will require new thinking, business and industry organizations say.
“What the economy cannot afford, and what the psyche of Canadians can’t afford, is to be forced back into total lockdown because we can’t control the virus,” said Ontario Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Rocco Rossi.
The province began its first major reopening phase Tuesday, allowing all construction to resume as well as stores with street-front entrances to reopen with restrictions.
Many other businesses remain closed for now and still reliant on government aid packages to get by. On Tuesday, the federal government announced an expansion to the eligibility criteria for its small-business loan program to businesses that don’t have payroll, such as those that employ contractors.
A survey prepared for the Chamber of Commerce, as well as for the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association and Ontario General Contractors Association, shows that 88 per cent of Ontarians are worried about the
economy and 75 per cent are worried about contracting COVID-19. The Chamber of Commerce said the results, released Tuesday, show that the economy and the health of Ontarians are interdependent and must be addressed together.
Rossi said elements that are critical to boosting the confidence of consumers and employees include expanding testing, contact tracing and access to personal protective equipment for businesses of all sizes.
“No one can promise zero additional infections and zero additional deaths, so long as we have no vaccine,” Rossi said.
“What we can and must assure employees and consumers is that there will be zero tolerance for incompetence; that every step that can be taken will be taken to provide for safe and secure establishments, whether they be factories or retail outlets.”
Operating in an environment where COVID-19 remains a risk is at the heart of work being led by the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
The organization released a report titled “Reimagining Recovery” last week. Six working groups, including senior leaders from a variety of sectors with collaboration from the city, are focusing on “priority working tracks” for a successful reopening.
That means looking at everything from recovery timelines for different sectors to expanding the use of digital commerce to retrofitting the needs of businesses.
“Main street, airports, mass transit, major event spaces, commercial spaces, shopping malls — there’s action we need to take now to ready-proof all these community spaces for our three-stage recovery,” the report says. The report outlines the three-stage recovery as a managed return, a pre-vaccine return and a post-vaccine return, with toggling between the different stages should new outbreaks arise.
“When we started this in early March, many of us were thinking that we just needed to wait until it was over and we could go back to normal,” said Board of Trade president and CEO Jan De Silva.
“The reality is we’re going to have to learn how to normalize activities with COVID still existing. So this (framework) is thinking through all the elements that will need to be addressed and make sure we’ve got resources supporting them.”
Aside from retail, one of the other big sectors affected by this week’s reopening is construction, which sounded the alarm at the beginning of the pandemic about lack of protection from potential outbreaks at work sites.
Phil Gillies, executive director of the Ontario Construction Consortium, told the Star Tuesday that things are better now, but some measures implemented by the province during the pandemic — including more frequent inspections — must remain in place permanently. A major concern remains physical distancing to limit the potential spread of the virus.
“The reality is that in all likelihood, it’s going to take longer to build a typical project if all these safety measures are being adhered to and it’s going to impact on price, so these measures have to be factored into the tender process,” Gillies said. The Ford government announced Tuesday that schools will be closed for the rest of the school year, which will keep many workers at home and likely affect just how quickly the province’s economy can fully reopen.
“I think that does somewhat constrain the extent to which the economy can rebound, that’s the reality of the situation,” said BMO chief economist Doug Porter.
“Folks might eventually figure out a way to deal with the situation, but it does definitely add a layer of uncertainty into how the economy can recover.”
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