Dog joint custody ruling
Sea turtle cases 'significant'
Prison guards protest
Poilievre called a 'fraud' 
Arrest in toddler death 
Watching election from afar
Pivotal phase for Trump trial 
New sanctions on Iran 
Authorities left in the dark 
How to get the best rate 
US home sales fall
Construction workers key 
Rockets live to fight on
Vees advance against rivals
Blazer moves up draft list
Shania huge Swift fan
Scorsese & Leo team up
Kid Cudi engaged
A recent poll shows Kamloops businesses face a number of obstacles when it comes to restarting under B.C.'s Phase 2 plan.
According to the third 'Pulse Check' survey from the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce, local respondents identified five big challenges. The first is attracting customers and revenue (60 per cent).
"We don't know at what pace customers are going to return to our businesses. Are they going to be going to restaurants as much as they used to? Are they going to be staying in hotels as much as they used to? Do they still have the same disposable income or cash on hand? And do they feel safe to be in those businesses?" Tyson Andrykew, president of the chamber's board of directors, tells Castanet.
"It's a lot of uncertainty," he says. "The one thing that government can't shed light on... is consumer confidence. That's going to ultimately be the will of the people and the will of the customer."
Other challenges identified include having enough operating cash for other expenses, like wages and rent (51 per cent); bringing staff back to the workplace, with considerations like unavailable child care (49 per cent); being unprepared or unable to meet safety standards and requirements (32 per cent); and having enough money to implement safety standards (32 per cent).
More than 1,300 businesses across the province participated in the survey; of those, 100 were from the Kamloops area.
"One of the interesting things... as I dug into the results further is... only 44 per cent (of Kamloops businesses) said that they were accessing the wage subsidy, which I was a little surprised to find," Adrykey says.
He notes that piece of data brings up questions of whether businesses are applying for the subsidy. If they aren't, why not? If they are, why are they not meeting the requirements? That's something Adrykey hopes to look into further.
"That's an interesting takeaway (from the survey) that gives our team at the chamber an opportunity to go to the membership with, with a bit of a task at hand, to figure out why that number was so low."
Meanwhile, more than half of the questionnaire respondents said it will take two months or more to restart their business.
