CANMORE – A business-needs survey released two weeks ago to businesses in Canmore has shown 30 per cent of businesses may not reopen once the global pandemic COVID-19 coronavirus comes to an end.
The survey, released Friday (March 20) at 8 p.m. to local businesses in an attempt to assess the most pressing economic needs in the community, shows a dire economic situation for many of the valley’s local operations.
“The statistics show us one in four may not reopen – those are scary statistics,” said Eleanor Miclette, the Town of Canmore’s manager of economic development.
Miclette explained once the province issued protocols surrounding businesses earlier this month, which required some to shut down, and some to operate differently or at limited capacity, she and her team wanted to understand the most pressing needs.
“Very quickly we started thinking ‘OK, what are the supports we need to be advocating for or working on to help our district out at this time.’ In order to do that, we need to understand, for one, what the need is,” she said.
A business-needs survey is part of economic disaster recovery training, explained Miclette. In order to best assist the local economy, the first step is to understand what is happening.
Within 45 minutes of sending out the survey, Miclette said 121 responses were received.
“In total, [there were] 493 responses when we closed the survey a week later,” she said.
Of those who filled out the survey, 94 per cent were from Canmore, two per cent from the MD of Bighorn and Banff and 3.5 per cent from other locations. The survey asked questions such as where does your business operate (from home, an office, etc.), and what’s it operating in model.
“Then we looked at ‘what’s your immediate impact of COVID-19?’ It’s not surprising,” she said.
“Sixty-one per cent [of businesses] said it impacted their sales, but then their ability to operate their business, customer demand, employee availability … and supply chain, so their ability to actually get the products that they sell, were affected.”
The survey asked about business operation longevity, which Miclette said showed roughly 30 per cent of businesses are in "critical condition."
“Of the businesses that responded, 31 per cent said they were either unable to meet current expenses or had less than one month of finances in place to cover costs," said Miclette. "That’s an important number when you think about business closures and those that might not be able to survive the span of the pandemic that there’s thirty-one per cent of respondents who are, in my opinion, in critical condition.”
“Then there’s 28 per cent that can last about three months and about 17 per cent that can last six months or longer… There’s 24 per cent who are unsure.”
In addition, the survey looked at employee status and how many businesses needed to lay off staff.
“Employee status, the biggest component, more than 60 per cent of businesses that responded that they have closed and laid off all staff, laid of some employees or will be laying off employees,” she said.
“Again this is two week old data ... I think that number is higher [now].”
Miclette said with 31 per cent of respondents indicating their businesses won’t last a month, it shows that one in four will likely not reopen once the global pandemic comes to an end.
“When we look at what is needed then, what resources they need immediately and what they might need next to week, in a month,” she said.
“Then we started looking at what is that we can do as a town and through the business community itself … what can we do, what do we need to be advocating other governments for. There’s things we can do and things that are beyond our ability to address.”
Miclette and her team, alongside the Downtown Business Association (BIA), have recently released a number of free online courses offering to help the local business community in the interim. The courses include an e-commerce marketing class and multiple courses surrounding COVID-19 including Covid Tax Implications and HR amidst COVID.
Beth Vandervoort, executive director of the BIA, said the courses were something they could do right now.
“There’s all these programs coming out … they’re all works in progress,” said Vandervoort referring to government aid announced and the application process.
“We wanted to be proactive as a business organization. The e-commerce course, for example, here’s something we can do right away while people are waiting to figure out well ‘how do we apply to all of this.’
“So it’s just a few courses that we can think of right now that can be helpful to the businesses of Canmore.”
The courses can be found at carmellaconsulting.com/masterclass-signup-form/.
Meanwhile, both Vandervoort and Miclette spoke to the emotional challenges business owners and staff continue to face during this pandemic.
“We’re having to have conversations and the emotions are real and the emotions are raw. There are businesses that will thrive and there are businesses that won’t survive and it’s just heart wrenching,” said Miclette.
“They are making really, really tough decisions for their livelihood and the livelihood of their staff and that’s coming with lots of tears and lots of heartache.”
Miclette said no amount of business planning could have prepared the local economy for a global pandemic and they are all doing the best they can during this time. In addition, Miclette asked for those who can, to please continue supporting local businesses as much as possible during this time.
“If there’s one message I’d like to get out is for our community to really come alongside our business community as best as they can,” she said.
“If there’s creative ways that they can support our businesses, I’d encourage them to do it. We want to see the vibrancy in our community in the long term, and this is the time they need us to come alongside, if people are able to, to come up with creative ways to support them.”
