Saint John Businesses Split On Keeping Covid Measures

SAINT JOHN–Mask-wearing and physical distancing measures might not be mandatory now, but almost half of Saint John area businesses are still being cautious, to some degree.

The Saint John Region Chamber of Commerce released results this week on its latest membership poll in an effort to better understand the reopening plans for many businesses.

In all, 525 companies in the Chamber’s business area responded to the survey. David Duplisea, CEO of the Chamber said there were mixed feelings from businesses om how they planned to reopen and return to normal operation.

“We suspected the participation was going to be very high based on the numbers that came in very quickly and we had about one-hundred just in the first couple of days,” Duplisea said in an interview.

Businesses were polled over a two-week span up until March 14, the same day remaining restrictions under the government’s mandatory order were lifted in New Brunswick.

The largest representation of those surveyed was primarily from general businesses involved in personal welfare/wellness, such as barbers and beauty salons, with Duplisea adding tourism and hospitality were also well represented across the survey.

Just over half, (54 percent) of businesses surveyed in the region indicated they were not going to enforce opening protocols.

“We’ve come from total lockdown to various degrees of it. We’ve had varying degrees of safety protocols or lack thereof, some businesses have been left kind of thinking, ‘okay, what do I do? How do I balance what my customers want and what’s safe for my employees and still works with a viable business model to keep my business open?’” Duplisea said March 18.

All are concerns Duplisea says businesses are currently considering in an attempt to determine the best way forward with their staff and customers.

The other 46 percent (who plan to implement one or more protocols) favoured masks and safe distancing protocols to continue, with 69 percent in favour of continuing masks and 67 percent saying they’ll continue with encouraging safe distancing.

For almost one quarter of the businesses planning to continue any combination of protocols, 23 percent still planned to ask for proof of vaccination.

Duplisea says the Chamber will be looking to update its analysis later in the year, perhaps on multiple occasions, to see if attitudes and perceptions change over time.

While not everyone is going to feel normal right away, Duplisea says seeing others going out to restaurants and the return of tourists will certainly influence how businesses choose to handle what they perceive the level of risk to be.

“That could affect people’s decisions, especially the cruise ships, which we welcome and we need the tourism,” Duplisea said. “But that may also affect people’s perceptions and opinions on how they’re going to protect themselves.”

New normal for workspaces?

“We also wanted to know what the dynamic of the working protocols were going to be either from home or in the office, hybrid, and how many of those who were unsure,” Duplisea said.

Fifty-eight percent were planning on returning to the office this month, while others are still looking at trying a hybrid approach.

The chamber survey saw 11 percent claiming they are still working in a pure from-home model. Another 22 percent of businesses surveyed are looking at a hybrid “work site/work from home” plan.

Sixteen percent were still unsure if their work would go to the office or stay at home.

Duplisea believes some businesses can now make it work both ways, thanks to investments already made by many companies which have allowed remote work to become possible.

“I hear that frequently. Some of the medium-sized companies too, there was an initial upfront cost to reverting your workforce and your talent base into a work-from-home or a hybrid model,” Duplisea said. “Now that they’ve made that transition and they are fairly happy with it. They don’t necessarily want to give it all up and go back to a nine-to-five.”

“We’re hearing from people that the days of going in and sitting in office from nine-to-five are probably not going to come back the way they were.”

Tyler Mclean is a Huddle reporter based in Fredericton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].