By Cheryl Jahn

Small business bracing for Omicron

Jan 6, 2022 | 3:57 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Four days after new mandatory paid sick leave kicked in, the Provincial Health Office had a grim message for small businesses: Prepare to lose a third of your workforce to the Omicron variant.

Not helpful, according to the local Chamber of Commerce.

“What more can you say?,” asks CEO Todd Corrigall, Chamber CEO. “What’s frustrating is they look at this from the lens of ‘Well, be prepared to lose your workers and we’ve got sick days that came into effect January 1st’ What they seem to avoid saying is ‘If you’re down a third of your workforce, is it not relative to say businesses are going to be down a third of their profits and we should be looking to help them right now?’.”

He says the relief money touted by the government as the largest and most historic for small businesses is misleading.

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“Unfortunately what they failed to mention was that it was the most unsubscribed program because it was so onerous, complicated, and costly for small business to apply for it, that it was unsubscribed or undersubscribed.”

And he is suspect of the wording used by Dr. Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix in the briefing.

“These are not enforcements. These are not actions. These are requests for businesses to implement safety plans again,” he says. “The instant that these become Provincial Health Officer orders, or restrictions mandated by government, there needs to be equal funding that flows with it. So what they’ve said is ‘You’re going to lose a third of your workforce, but put a COVID Plan in place. And, don’t worry, we’ve got nothing coming.’.”

by Cheryl Jahn

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Small business bracing for Omicron

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