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PG Chamber CEO looking to province to up the ante on business support programs

Prince George Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Corrigall believes local businesses are hurting at the same rate as their provincial counterparts during the pandemic.

A poll from the BC Chamber of Commerce from last month stated 62% of businesses reported a revenue decrease of 25% or more since the pandemic began.

Corrigall told MyPGNow.com while the federal assistance programs have been a big help, the provincial government could be doing a lot more.

PG Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Corrigall | Courtesy PG Chamber

“There has been these historic over-payments to WorkSafeBC and the government has known about this since before the last provincial election and there has been no movement in getting that money back to businesses so that they can implement the proper safety protocols to bring back as many customers as possible.”

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“There’s good programs in place at the federal level but at the provincial level there is much more that needs to be done.”

On the flip side, the BC Chamber poll noted 36% are feeling slightly more optimistic about the next 12 months with 22% of respondents expecting to increase employments levels in the next six months.

“We have engaged with some of our partner organizations through this process and they have indicated that they expect some revenue return for the year but it’s also no secret that the vaccine roll-out is going to take a significantly long time.”

He added the most successful retail businesses coming out of the pandemic will have some component of e-commerce available.

“Whether that be something as simple as running a curbside pickup process through your Facebook page to the more elaborate we can ship anything to anywhere in the world through our storefront in BC.”

“When it comes to market competition, you can have a business in Prince George that has a unique e-commerce platform that allows you to sell into Saskatchewan or Ontario or other parts of the country and into the US and while there may have been some reluctance to look at those e-commerce solutions we have been assisting Innovations Central Society and Hubspace with their DER3 program, which is migrating businesses to an e-commerce idea or platform.”

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