{"id":26959,"date":"2020-07-09T22:09:55","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T02:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26959"},"modified":"2020-07-09T22:10:01","modified_gmt":"2020-07-10T02:10:01","slug":"local-business-owners-share-stage-2-reopening-concerns-questions-with-finance-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/local-business-owners-share-stage-2-reopening-concerns-questions-with-finance-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Local business owners share Stage 2 reopening concerns, questions with Finance Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the Province keeps a close eye on numbers before\nmoving parts of Ontario to Stage 3 of its re-opening plan, the Government wants\nto keep momentum on its side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the message delivered to Aurora Chamber of\nCommerce members last week by Finance Minister Rod Phillips at a virtual\nroundtable for local business owners and officials hosted by Aurora-Oak\nRidges-Richmond Hill MPP Michael Parsa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The roundtable was a way for the Province to check in\nwith local businesses as they settled into Stage 2 and all the new realities\nthe re-opening plan has presented so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been trying very hard to take opportunities to\ncheck in through this pandemic,\u201d said Minister Phillips. \u201cIn the middle of\nMarch, I was just getting ready to present our annual budget. It was a typical\nfive-year budget, the kinds of plans we normally make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn March, I set out a one-year plan because we really\ndidn\u2019t have the opportunity then to have the kind of perspective we need. In\nNovember of this year, we\u2019ll lay out a multi-year plan that will include a lot\nof the things we want to do around recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week\u2019s session was an opportunity for the local\nbusiness community to sound off on what they would like to see addressed this\nfall \u2013 as well as right here and now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the chief concerns brought to the table were making\nsure measures were well in hand should a second wave of COVID-19 hit Ontario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Sandra Ferri, President & CEO of the\nAurora Chamber of Commerce, members have expressed \u201cconcern about moving\nforward\u201d, how a second wave might be handled, and whether alternatives to\nStages 1, 2, and 3 are being explored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are looking very closely at what we learned through\nthe first wave and\u2026those of us in government have to be kind of humble about\nwhat we can and can\u2019t do and know what\u2019s possible,\u201d he said. \u201cThe objective of\nthe staged process we have been going through\u2026has been to not have to retreat\nand take steps backward in order to manage the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are two things that happen everywhere when the\neconomy has been reopened. There are flare-ups and things like what happened in\nKingston [with the virus outbreak at a nail salon] and we have to be able to\nhandle those flare-ups [so] we don\u2019t go backwards in time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe second thing we know that is happening everywhere in\nthe world is fewer people come back initially, whether that is businesses that\ncould open and choose not to, or employees that come back to the businesses\nbecause there are things like the CERB and other factors, but also just people\nbeing concerned about coming back to work and fewer customers come back\ninitially. Our hope is that when we have a second wave, and I don\u2019t say that\nbecause I know there will be one, but I think it is prudent that we plan for\nit, we would be able to on a case by case basis respond to those impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the re-opening impacts, however, are smaller-scale\nand business-specific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To that end, the Chamber fielded a question about whether\nor not Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) required to keep employees safe can\nbe considered part of a business\u2019 regular operating expenses or treated\naltogether differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The treatment of PPE, said Minister Phillips, is\nsomething that is being \u201clooked at\u201d for the November budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn terms of direct subsidy for it, right now we\u2019re\nreally focused on making sure that the health system, which in this case\nincludes the broader health system of long-term care, [has] access to PPE,\u201d he\nsaid. \u201cWe have made some great steps with that. One of the things we\u2019re looking\nat is whether there is the opportunity for the Province to become an aggregated\nbuyer of PPE to reduce some of the costs, even if it is going to be\u2026 a cost\nthat has to be born by business. Because of the volumes we\u2019re having to buy for\nthe public health system, the prison system and all of those areas, whether or\nnot there is an ability to drive some real discounts so the private sector can\ntake advantage of that, those are areas we\u2019re looking at right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top of mind, however, is building up consumer confidence\nonce again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a theme Newmarket-Aurora MPP Christine Elliott,\nwho holds the dual portfolios of Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, told\nThe Auroran last month, and this was reiterated last week by Minister Phillips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the realities of every place that has reopened is\nfewer people come back initially and, over time, in the places that have been\nsuccessful, people see the combination of health statistics, maybe they drive\nby a patio a couple of times\u2026it is about people\u2019s confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Mr. Parsa: \u201cYou can see that when businesses open slowly, they are seeing their clients are returning\u2026and more and more people will follow suit. We have to get out there and support these local businesses. These local businesses truly make our local communities. They are the ones who support our local sports teams, they are the ones who support our local Legions and Chambers and fundraisers that we have. They are truly what makes our communities and we have to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Province keeps a close eye on numbers before moving parts of Ontario to Stage 3 of its re-opening plan, the Government wants to keep momentum on its side. This was the message delivered to Aurora Chamber of Commerce members last week by Finance Minister Rod Phillips at a virtual roundtable for local business […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-70P","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 07:19:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}