Safety, training essential for recovering businesses post-pandemic: Surrey Board of Trade

SURREY (NEWS 1130) — Surrey’s main business lobby is out with new recommendations for companies preparing to evolve into a new normal.

Noting the revival of fortunes in business is going to be a process, the Surrey Board of Trade says the main focus should be on safety and training.

CEO Anita Huberman says the steps the board is recommending don’t have to be done all at once.

“Well, it’s going to be a very phased in, careful approach, mitigated with advice from health practitioners’ science,” she explains.

The board suggests other steps, including the establishment of funds to help employees through tough times, on top of more flexibility in working hours, which Huberman says can be phased-in over time.

She understands the call from some to move quickly in the process, but she says it can’t be rushed.

“While we think about getting back to business we must measure optimism with realism,” Huberman says. “We understand and appreciate how challenging everything is – we are in a new economy. We must do everything we can to prepare our workplaces now as we hear soon with phased-in economic re-opening.”

Huberman says the board has been actively lobbying the province for things like rebates or even tax incentives to keep the cost of doing business post-pandemic at reasonable levels.

“All of that is under consideration. And they heard it loud and clear, I mean, everyone’s bottom line has been compromised,” she says.