A big thanks to all of our Members who completed our survey last week prior to our session with the Treasury. Advocacy on behalf of our Members is one of NorthChamber’s main pillars of service and your survey information was a main component for our briefing with Treasury. In addition, Chamber’s anecdotal feedback and data gathered during check-ins with business over lock-down, and more recently the interactions with businesses since coming back to the office helped inform our session.
Here is a short summary of the results from our business members in the community:
(please note due to the formulations of the questions, not all the categories have been included)
Q1 – What industry are you in?
A very wide response across all industry sectors
Q2 – Did you qualify for the COVID wage subsidy and was the process easy?
79% yes 21% No
60% saying the process was easy.
Q3 – Will you be applying for the second round of wage subsidy?
31% yes 61% no
Q4 – Did you apply for the IRD Small Business cash loan?
34% yes 64% No
Q5 – Did you defer taxes with IRD?
10% yes 89% no
Q6 – Did you apply for support from the Regional Business Partnership?
22% yes 77% no
Q7 – Did you understand information provided at each level relating to how you could operate your business?
89% yes 8% no
Q8 – Would your business survive going back to level 3 or 4?
57% yes 26% no
*Many comments detailed Level 3 issues, but said Level 4 would be hard. Many indicated they would need assistance.
Q9- What issues do you see emerging from our region as a result of the Covid-19 crisis?
93% responded with the main issues being a rise in unemployment, effects on tourism, hospitality and retailers, the need for support for SMEs, the need for local and national government to respond with speed, worry for the future and concerns around community mental health and wellbeing.
Q10- How is the wellbeing of your team and family through this time?
43% said they, a team member or family member had experienced difficulties.
54% said they were okay to very good.
*many comments detailed they were doing fine but had some concerns for the future.