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A Message from the CCAB Team
Sent to members on March 18, 2020
Dear CCAB Members,
We wanted to reach out to you directly to let you know what we’re doing during the COVID-19 pandemic to help protect the safety and well-being of our members, our team, and our communities.
We are encouraging self-isolation and working remotely to help prevent the spread of the virus and we have restricted business travel, otherwise, we continue to operate normally. We have also postponed our upcoming events including the Forward Summit, Gala Award Dinner, and Tools & Financing for Aboriginal Business networking event. We are staying up to date on COVID-19 developments and recommendations by the Public Health Agency of Canada.
We are aware that the risk of the outbreak can be even greater to Indigenous communities and businesses, and I assure you that the CCAB team is working hard to understand the negative impacts of the novel coronavirus on the Indigenous economy and Indigenous supply chains. To help us understand the situation, we are conducting a survey on the effects of the novel coronavirus on Aboriginal business.
Preliminary results indicate that:
- 75% of respondents are very or somewhat concerned that the COVID-19 pandemic will affect their business operations
- 64% have experienced a moderate to high negative impact on their business activity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
- The main impacts to businesses have been on travel (36%), supply chain (21%), and labour/employment (7%)
The results of this survey may help us advocate for the unique needs of Aboriginal business. If you own an Aboriginal business, we encourage you to complete the survey.
In addition, we want to ensure our members have a voice during this unprecedented time. We are setting up an information update/conference call to occur on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1 pm EST. On your behalf, we will forward your concerns and questions to the appropriate government departments, businesses, and organizations. If you are interested in participating, please register here.
We are also compiling a comprehensive list of assistance available. Resources that may help deal with the economic impact of the novel coronavirus. As new resources and assistive services become available, we will update our list and share this on our website.
We urge everyone to follow the most up to date public health to ensure that we are all doing our part to take care of ourselves and each other, especially our elders and the most vulnerable in our population.
We will continue to monitor this situation and provide updated information to our members on what supports are available to Aboriginal businesses.
Please contact us if you have any questions.
Miigwetch,
Tabatha Bull & the CCAB team