Jonathan Alward, a director with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says many businesses have been hard hit by the shut down that went into effect earlier this month especially with the winter holidays coming up.  He explains retail staff have been really hard hit, restaurants continue to be hard hit, hotels incredibly and a lot of gym and recreation facilities as well.   He notes especially for some of those businesses in retail and restaurants this is one of the worst times of year for the lock down to come into effect as they really rely on the holiday season even at hair salons.  He says he was talking to one earlier this week and about a quarter of their revenue for the year comes in the lead up to the holiday season so this is going to be a very difficult time for them as well so hopefully in the province we can curve the number of cases as quickly as possible to get back to some semblance of business as usual.

Alward also commented on the revised Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy saying while the initial rollout of the program was not fair to many renters as it required landlords to sign off on it the new changes will ensure less businesses fall through the cracks.