A new survey on office businesses in downtown Moncton shows many companies still have their employees working from home,10 months since the COVID-19 pandemic began in the region.
The survey, carried out in September and October 2020, was conducted by the Southeast Economic Recovery Task Force, a collaborative group that includes city or town officials from Moncton, Dieppe, Riverview and Sackville, as well as the Moncton Chamber of Commerce, Working NB and several other groups.
Its goal is to work towards economic recovery by offsetting the loss of workers and businesses in downtown Moncton endured during the pandemic.
“Several companies expressed concern for downtown Moncton’s vitality due to COVID, although many also said they had encouraged their employees to shop local and spend personal time downtown,” read a task force news release.
The survey report showed that two-thirds of responding businesses have at least some, if not all, of their employees working from home.
Part of the task force’s long-term economic recovery goals is ensuring businesses can adapt and respond to “a new normal,” following the removal of majority COVID-19 restrictions.
In the fall survey, all responding businesses said they plan on “adopting a ‘hybrid model’ in which employees will continue to split their time between home and office.”
With Public Health protocols in place, such as physical distancing, mask-wearing and increased sanitization, many businesses have had to re-organize group work spaces or take additional measures like installing plexiglass barriers.
According to the survey, however, 11 out of 14 responding businesses did not foresee long-term changes to their office space.
The task force report also showed that 12 of the businesses said layoffs were not on the radar back in September.
As of Monday, all of New Brunswick remains under the orange phase of COVID-19 recovery, as the province reported a record-high number of active cases of COVID-19. This means stricter restrictions for most businesses in the province are in place.
The task force said in the release it is preparing an action plan to support businesses in downtown Moncton. “That will include lobbying the federal and provincial governments to return as many employees as possible to the city core,” the release said.
The group’s plan is to focus on shop-local marketing, some of which was already piloted ahead of the 2020 holiday season.
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