By Emily Keller

business

City, County and Chamber of Commerce launch taskforce to help businesses during COVID-19 pandemic

Mar 26, 2020 | 11:59 AM

The City of Grande Prairie, County of Grande Prairie and Grande Prairie & District Chamber of Commerce have launched a joint taskforce to respond to businesses facing challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Christopher King, Manager of Economic Development with the County of Grande Prairie, says one of the first steps they wanted to take was to develop a portal for local businesses with accurate information.

“There’s a lot of information out there, and some of it is questionable (with) it’s sources and where it’s coming from, and we wanted to make sure that if we’re providing links for business, they can (be) confident that those links are legitimate sources of information.”

He says they are working with the provincial government and Economic Developers Alberta regarding what is happening provincially, but that the situation and challenges faced locally may be different.

“We wanted a venue where people could interact with us and say, ‘Hey, here’s the challenges we’re having in our business, this is the challenge I’m having in my business,” and so we can get a sense of what is out there, and we can help prioritize where we can direct our efforts to those that are common issues that are faced by the businesses in our community.”

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Rebecca Leigh, Manager of Economic Development with the City of Grande Prairie, says one of the resources they have been relying on so far is a survey from the Economic Developers Alberta.

“Now, the survey’s only been available for about a week or so, but the initial response, we saw 900 businesses from across the province, and over 77 per cent of those said that right now, their most important, immediate business need is to understand the grants and financial support that’s available through the province.”

Tomorrow, the taskforce will be hosting a webinar, from 12 to 1 p.m. that will include information on supports available to local businesses and actions they can take during the pandemic.

The webinar will feature Tom Pura from the Chamber, and Holly Sorgen from Community Futures.

“We wil be having a bit of a conversational approach to it, just because things are evolving so quickly,” said Leigh, “Chatting with Holly about what some of those supports are that are out there, what are some quick, immediate actions that businesses can take to ensure that their positions take advantage of some of the funding grants and financial assistance through the other levels of government.”

There will be a question section of the webinar as well for those who participate.

Registration for the webinar can be done here.

Starting today, the taskforce has also launched a social media campaign, where residents and community members are asked to show support for local businesses by using the hashtag #LoveLocalGP in social media posts, and tagging a local business. Those who participate can be entered into a weekly draw to win 1 of 4 Chamber Cheques valued at $100 each. Unique posts are also entered into the final grand prize draw to win a $1,500 Chamber Cheque.