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Estevan Chamber's reaction to COVID-19

The Estevan Chamber of Commerce has been trying to provide resources to assist its members in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. “We haven’t had any disruption with the chamber, other than events, obviously,” said executive director Jackie Wall.
Estevan Chamber, Jackie Wall
The Estevan Chamber of Commerce's executive director Jackie Wall. File photo

The Estevan Chamber of Commerce has been trying to provide resources to assist its members in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.

“We haven’t had any disruption with the chamber, other than events, obviously,” said executive director Jackie Wall.

Their annual general meeting, which was originally planned for March 19, had to be put off as restrictions were placed on public gatherings. Their staff members have been working from home, as is now common.

“At this time, we are making sure we’re providing up-to-date resources for everybody,” Wall said.

“I’m looking at expanding them on our website, but right now we have the pandemic preparedness from the Canadian Chamber. That’s already up on our site. And then the disaster resilience and recovery – coronavirus resources from the Saskatchewan Economic Development Alliance (SEDA). That link is also on our website.

The chamber sent out a newsletter that had a half dozen different sources of information and a webinar from BDC (Business Development Bank of Canada).

“People are getting so much information right now. We’re doing what we can to provide links to resources that businesses are going to need, or that can help businesses.”

At that point she didn’t have details on layoffs in Estevan, but knew the hospitality industry had been hard hit. 

As of April 1, the Chamber’s website has been updated with a COVID-19 business resource section.

“We have started to actively call out to members. I think I’ve done about 20-25 already, and we’re going to keep going through the list as time allows,” she said.

On March 30 another email blast was sent out with updated online resources.

“So far, businesses are managing as best they can, but there is frustration because there’s not details around the government’s announcements. We are posting those links because the information keeps changing.”

“We’re doing all we can to communicate those resources, and provide the feedback to the Saskatchewan and Canadian chambers, because they’re directly linked back to government ministries and can mobilize their advocacy efforts on our local business’ behalf.

“We’re really fortunate we have that strong network, because it can mobilize quickly.”

Business owners are concerned they had to do layoffs, and are trying to provide resources for their workers.

“Nobody likes to lay anyone off, but ultimately they’re trying to look after their staff.”

The Saskatchewan Chamber had sent out a survey to its members, asking for feedback on how they had been affected. As a result, the local chamber didn’t duplicate efforts. A similar one was expected from SEDA, of which Wall is on the executive.

“We want to gauge this as we’re going. If other chamber partners are sending out surveys, we don’t want to duplicate their process, obviously,” she said.

Wall is the president of the Canadian chamber executives of Saskatchewan. They’ve been holding weekly remote meetings to support one another and to get feedback from different regions. She’s looking at doing something similar with the national chamber.

“I’m actively getting feedback from the board as well, as to what they’re hearing, and what we need to do as a chamber. We’re asking for feedback from the members, as well,” she said.

Other chambers are reporting the shutdowns of various businesses, like restaurants closing their doors but offering pickup or delivery.

“One interesting one was North Battleford. Their furniture store actually sold out of deep freezes, because people were buying deep freezes to stock up on food supplies.

“It’s a lot of the same concerns. This is hitting the whole province. I will say that in some ways, I think Estevan was ahead of the curve. We already had a lot strategic alliances set in place because of what we’ve been experiencing in our economy due to the coal transition,” Wall said.

“As far as business continuity, our chamber has looked at that over the last few years.”

This was initially to look at making sure the chamber could continue to function if it was struck by a fire, for example, or someone died. That preparation is paying off now, as the organization is working from home.