Deb Arnott is the Sun Country General Manager for Community Futures for a region that reaches from Hope to 70 Mile House that includes Lillooet, Gold Bridge, Logan Lake and Savona.

Discussion opens with information regarding businesses within the region still recovering financially from the 2017 wildfires and that this year was intended to be the first of years to see recovery within businesses including their revenue. Because of the varying levels of impact from wildfires pending their location to the fires, planning programs for COVID-19 was challenging as they needed to be different based on these previous impacts.

From the beginning of COVID-19, physical business closures meant Community Futures needs to initiate immediate response programs. This included providing businesses with support from inventory, to additional services like the assistance of Shopify for some businesses in order to continue making their sales through online adaptations. After the first few months, Community Futures would implement “pulse checks” to see where businesses were at, and how they were doing, and how Community Futures could continue to support them moving forward.

Support programs and funding were announced nationally by Prime Minister Trudeau, and Community Futures was mentioned during an address on April 18th. They would then move forward with the procedures to access those programs and funding and lobbied to be able to provide businesses with access to funding through loans at 0% interest at a return due date, no earlier than 2022 additionally with the possibility of 25% of it as forgiven over that time period.

While sitting in on a Provincial Board with Western Diversification at the table, along with this funding support, Deb stated a need for a hotline for the local businesses to be able to reach actual people and get the information they needed for continuing operations and funding which came from experience having similar physical representation of ambassadors during the 2017 wildfires that would not be facilitate during COVID-19 safe practices.

Further discussion moves to conversation regarding downsizing businesses versus closure, loans versus bailouts and additionally building longer term planning in anticipation of the possibility of a second wave of the epidemic.

Additionally from just COVID-19 related situations, Community Futures is helping businesses plan for whether they should consider “pivoting” and shifting their targets and products, whether to accommodate for the current state of affairs, but also from even the possibility of pivoting stemming from learning and discovering more about their relationship and development of their own businesses.

Deb Arnott closes with discussing her current application with Northern Development Initiative Trust in setting a Regional Liaison position as a further support locally to help with inquiries and direction assistance for businesses in their current situations and for moving forward in navigating the overwhelming amount of online information to get the answers they need.