‘The toughest choices of their lives’: future uncertain for northeast businesses

“Local business owners are being faced with the toughest choices of their lives,” Fahlman told northeastNOW. “Most of the businesses in Melfort; everybody who works here is one big, extended family. They know each other’s kids, aunts, and uncles. If we have to make tough decisions to lay people off, we know exactly the impact we’re doing to other members of our community.”

Fahlman owns Fountain Tire in Melfort. Personally, he’s noticed a massive decrease in door-to-door traffic and phone calls. He still has a few drop-in appointments during the day as they try to perform their service as safely as possible.

“People are being laid off and don’t have the same amount of income, so they’re holding on to their wallets and that’s totally understandable,” he said. “[My family is] looking at everything and only getting the essentials; it’s totally understandable.”

Once in a generation decline

A little over an hour southwest, businesses in the City of Humboldt are also feeling the same effect.

“Without question, this is the most unprecedented time in business,” Humboldt and District Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Director Brent Fitzpatrick said. “I’ve been in business for 40-plus years and I’ve never seen this vertical wall of halt.”

From the businesses he’s talked with – chamber members and non-members – Fitzpatrick said the impact will be felt in every industry in one way or another. He mentioned the essential services in Humboldt – such as grocery stores and pharmacies – and was relieved to hear a story of one store being told to prevent customers stocking up on items such as toilet paper.

“[Hoarding] has played a large part into it as well,” he said. “People can’t find flour, sugar, toilet paper… so it’s impacted businesses that way. It is critically important that Saskatchewan [flattens the curve]. This isn’t about individual gain right now; this is about community survival. Everybody should be doing everything they can to mitigate the spread of this.”

Respect the isolation protocols

While the lack of customers will hurt businesses in the immediate future, a more serious note for business owners would be the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan. Fahlman said the main worry from Melfort business owners is residents not taking the 14-day self-quarantine/isolation seriously.

“If one of our businesses – because we’re all in contact with our employees so much – has one person walks in that is contagious and one of our employees gets sick, our business will effectively be shut down for a minimum of two weeks and not be able to service the community,” Fahlman said. “That will be carried on to other people at home. If you are sick, make sure you are self-quarantining for the 14 days… getting somebody to grab your essentials for you will be the best situation.

“I know all businesses are trying diligently to clean between customers and sanitize everything we can, but we need the public’s help in still continuing to come to our businesses, so we can keep our doors open, but doing so in a safe fashion and not trying to threaten the health and safety of our employees and other members in the community.”

On March 18, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to deploy up to $82 billion in direct spending and deferred taxes to help Canadians get through the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposal is expected to be addressed when the House of Commons reconvenes on March 24.

Federal help unclear

Currently, Fahlman said the information on business support is very unclear, as he and other business owners haven’t been given final information on exactly how to apply for any of that. He also said he’s had some employees go through the program to apply for employment insurance and additional benefits for families.

“Now, a parent has to stay home to be a teacher,” Fahlman said. “In that situation, that still isn’t going to be available until the beginning of April. They haven’t given us a date or a website we can go on to start applying. It’s a scary time for everyone.”

There could still be a silver lining for northeast business owners amid COVID-19. Fahlman mentioned how Melfort and area is further away from major centres and closer to land used primarily for agriculture.

“The farming community will have to put a crop in the ground; that will help out a lot of our local businesses,” he said. “If it continues from there, they’re still going to have to get feed for their animals when we start haying, and then they’ll have to pull that crop off. There will still be some stuff around here to do going forward for my business and a bunch of other businesses in town.”

In the meantime, both Fahlman and Fitzpatrick said the best way for northeast residents to help keep independently owned businesses afloat during the pandemic, is to call local businesses and see if they’re open and able to arrange the delivery of products differently.

“They all have, or are preparing a plan to deal with a possible loss of amount of people coming through their door,” Fahlman said. “All the local businesses in the area are more than willing to continue serving the community. We all want to stay open and help as much as we can, but we all still understand that we have to be safe and we understand the fluidity of the situation.”

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow

by Aaron Schulze

‘The toughest choices of their lives’: future uncertain for northeast businesses

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