REOPENING
Alliance critical of province’s plan
Some frustrated business people have joined together to form the Nova Scotia Business Alliance to urge Premier Iain Rankin to reopen the province’s economy more quickly.
The group wrote a letter on June 3 outlining its concerns but Rankin had not responded as of Friday.
Alliance spokesman Robert Zed said his group is not asking the government to ignore science but would like it to establish what it terms a more fact-based path to returning the economy back to normal.
Zed, who is Dalhousie University’s entrepreneur in residence, is chair and CEO of Toronto-based management consulting firm Triangle Strategies. He said in an interview Friday that he doesn’t have a business in Nova Scotia, but he has a stake in the future of the province’s economy and that is why he is a member of the alliance of some 110 businesspeople who signed the letter to the premier.
The pace of the rollout of the Nova Scotia economy, which the alliance claims is the slowest in the country, is having a negative effect on most businesses, Zed said, but has been particularly difficult for the province’s tourism industry.
“Public safety is and should remain a major priority, but the lack of acknowledgement from this government, given the extremely precarious state of our economy and our current reopening plan, will decimate our small businesses, tourism and hospitality sectors in the months to come,” said Zed.
Nova Scotia’s outlined reopening is conservative compared to New Brunswick’s plan. For instance, New Brunswick is offering an incentive program for Atlantic Canadian tourists to visit. It is also welcoming Canadians who have only a single COVID-19 vaccination to enter after July 1, provided vaccination goals in that province are met.
In the letter to Rankin, the business people stated their concerns are growing, considering the tourism season has already arrived.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The group made four recommendations for Rankin to consider: eliminate the quarantine for anyone with two vaccine doses; reinstate the so-called Atlantic bubble with the other three Atlantic provinces, subject to conditions; allow visitors with their first dose of vaccine to enter Nova Scotia after July 1; and align regulations with the rest of Atlantic Canada and the rest of the country.
If the pandemic conditions worsen, then Nova Scotia could shut down again and the tourism industry would be no worse off than it is today, Zed said.
While many Nova Scotians are concerned about the spread of COVID-19, he said that the business group is asking Rankin to respond less to fear and more to the scientific data available, given the increased vaccination rate in the province.
Taye Landry, president of fitness company Spinco in Halifax and Bedford, said in an interview Friday that she never lost $1 million “before now,” but that debt burden puts immense pressure on a small business like hers.
Landry said she has worked her whole life contributing to the provincial economy and, in return, businesses like hers need a better plan from the province to get back on their feet.
Spinco has been making do with outdoor fitness groups, more as a service to its clientele because the company isn’t making money doing that.
The province’s current plan for studios is to allow them to return to offering indoor fitness on Wednesday at 50 per cent capacity. But at that, for a smaller operation like Spinco, it means there will be only 17 bikes allowed in one of Landry’s studios and 19 each in her other two.
“It makes running a business very challenging,” she said.