The City of Victoria has announced its latest support initiative for small businesses in the region as the Province of BC initiates phase two of its economic recovery plan and coffee shops, boutique retailers, and shopping centres begin the process of re-opening to the public.
The City has collaborated with the Downtown Victoria Business Association, Think Local Victoria, Community Micro-Lending and other business leaders on a toolkit to support businesses to re-open safely.
The toolkit supports businesses that are practising physical distancing, taking hygienic measures, and exercising the necessary precautions to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and includes:
- occupancy signage to communicate the number of customers businesses are allowing inside at one time
- a checklist of COVID-related measures expected of customers and being followed by employees
- design files that can be taken to many local printers for easy production and use for poster or floor stickers for businesses to mark places for people to stand with appropriate social distancing.
“The items in this new toolkit will help provide some certainty for customers visiting businesses that have re-opened downtown,” said DVBA Executive Director Jeff Bray. “The occupancy signage, COVID-19 checklist and floor stickers will give people confidence the businesses they’re visiting are committed to providing a safe shopping experience.”
Over the past months the City of Victoria has looked at ways to create public spaces for safe community connections and business-consumer interactions and promoted several support-based initiatives from private and public organizations. These include the #yyjBizSupport campaign connecting local business owners with resources to obtain a loan or get help building a website and #ShopYYJ, encouraging Victoria residents to support their favourite restaurants and retailers.
“All of these initiatives — from the new toolkit, to laying the groundwork for businesses to use public spaces, to campaigns aimed at supporting our local businesses — are important steps the City is taking towards re-opening and recovering in a way that gets us all back to work safely,” said Mayor Lisa Helps.
To download the new business toolkit visit the City’s COVID-19 Business Resource page: victoria.ca/bizresources.
The Mayor’s Facebook Live COVID-19 updates take place on Fridays at 1 p.m. on the City of Victoria Facebook page. For more information on the City’s response to the pandemic, visit: victoria.ca/covid19response.
