Workplace Planning Board gathering data to assess impact of COVID-19 on local economy

Workforce planning boards are trying to get a better understanding of how businesses are being affected by COVID-19.

Workforce Planning for Sudbury and Manitoulin is launching a survey this week in partnership with the City of Greater Sudbury, and the local chamber of commerce.

Executive director Reggie Caverson says she's heard from businesses anecdotally, but now wants more concrete information.

"Otherwise it's very hard for us to plan and to help down the road if we don't know how many people have been laid off, how many businesses have to close, how many businesses won't be able to reopen," Caverson said.

"[The survey] is our only way of trying to be able to really get, drill down in terms of what is happening in our community."

From what she's heard so far, Caverson says many businesses are in a critical state.

"The retail outlets have been really impacted," she said. "Restaurants, and obviously servers have been impacted, but delivery services are way up."

Construction teams have also been affected by recent government rulings around work sites, she said.

"It's the full gamut. As anyone can guess, if you're running a business, are you open, can you be open? Can you serve people, depending on who your clients are? And that's been extremely challenging."

Although Caverson says there are some positive stories, such as manufacturers helping to produce personal protective equipment, or others that are seeing growing demand amid the pandemic.

"It's not, obviously the norm, but we do recognize that those are kind of those little nuggets of surprise that are coming out, that there's an increase, or that wages are increasing in certain places because of demand," she said.

"But I'm going to say overall, the impact, the broader impact has been very significant. And again that's why we are doing this survey. We're asking all of those questions."

Caverson said she's hoping to hear from all sectors of the economy, everything from small operations to large corporations.

She said the board plans to conduct surveys once a month, for the next six months in order to track trends and changes.

She added the other five workforce planning boards in northern Ontario are conducting similar surveys.