Job losses continue to mount in B.C. as coronavirus pandemic wreaks economic havoc.
Entire sectors of B.C.’s economy have been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, with hundreds of thousands of jobs lost and warnings of an even more difficult time to come.
“We all understand the economic fundamental that one person’s spending is one person’s income, but that virtuous cycle has been blown up,” said Val Litwin, B.C. Chamber of Commerce CEO.
“We have massive curtailments and closures in every single sector in every single location in B.C. The economy is starting to slow to the point it has very concerning long-term implications.”
The province’s business community is in “full-on crisis mode,” said Litwin. It is lobbying the federal and provincial governments with a single voice, a new COVID-19 group that brings together associations from across the economy in construction, trade, small business, forestry, mining, engineering, hospitality, food service, development, real estate, technology, fisheries, farming, roadbuilding, labour and more.
Particularly hard hit as been the restaurant and tourism sectors. B.C.’s public health officer has ordered restaurants to close table service and provide only takeout or delivery. Canada’s border closures and travel bans have virtually wiped out international visitors to the province, and many ski resorts, tourist attractions and hotels have closed.
“We are an industry of 180,000 people and I think there’s at least 150,000 people who are not working today,” said Ian Tostenson, president of the B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association.
Particularly hard hit has been the restaurant and tourism sectors. B.C.’s public health officer has ordered restaurants to close table service and provide only takeout or delivery. Canada’s border closures and travel bans have virtually wiped out international visitors to the province, and many ski resorts, tourist attractions and hotels have closed.
“We are an industry of 180,000 people and I think there’s at least 150,000 people who are not working today,” said Ian Tostenson, president of the B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association.
Restaurants already operate with tight margins and difficult conditions, but the food sector will be “forever altered” by COVID-19, he said. Many of the province’s 13,000 restaurants may never reopen, whenever the crisis passes.
“There’s going to be thousands of businesses that will have a really hard time returning because a lot of them are going to walk away,” he said.
Tourism has been hit even worse.
“The sector is decimated,” said Walt Judas, CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of B.C. “We’ve got a total sector complement of just over 300,000 people and probably two-thirds of them or more are now unemployed, and some might have been significantly curtailed as far as their hours are concerned.”
Among those still working, half say it’s just a matter of time before their hours are cut as well, according to Angus Reid. The online survey, from March 20-23, was a random sample of 1,644 adults in the Angus Reid forum and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
Both tourism operators and restaurants say they’ll need an influx of easily-accessible cash and forgivable small business loans by the federal and provincial governments in order to one day restart operations and rehire staff.
Most of the business community has high praise for the B.C. NDP government’s efforts so far to defer major taxes, like the employer health tax, to allow businesses to keep cash on hand for other emergency priorities.