Area businesses impacted by COVID-19 are being asked to complete a short survey to determine how they can best be helped.
The online survey has been developed by the Sarnia-Lambton COVID-19 Business and Economic Taskforce, which is made up of six organizations.
Sarnia-Lambton Chamber of Commerce Chair Mary Jean O’Donnell said the results of the survey will hopefully paint a clearer picture of the situation across Sarnia-Lambton.
"Where folks are at, what those needs are. One of the big pieces obviously we're seeing are those costs like rent -- so your business is closed but you're still being expected to pay your commercial rent and your commercial property taxes -- what do those things look like?"
O’Donnell said their first COVID-19 business impact survey, which was launched in March, has already made an impact across the country.
"The neatest thing actually, is that 75 per cent wage subsidy, Don Anderson from the Sarnia Business Development Corporation, he's in close contact with the small business federal government, he was able to share our initial findings from that first 144 [respondents], and that was actually the primary driver behind the 75 per cent wage subsidy."
O’Donnell said local businesses are pleased the federal government has responded, but added some businesses are still falling through the cracks.
"A lot of the programs initially that the government was aiming at were for larger businesses, and we know that a vast majority of our businesses, when we say small to medium, we mean really small, like fewer than 20 employees, and a lot of the programs were originally aimed at 50 plus employees."
Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership (SLEP) CEO Stephen Thompson said the first survey showed that nearly half of businesses that responded had been impacted and that about half had to close their doors.
"These days it would be hard to imagine that the numbers wouldn't be quite a bit higher than that. So it's not just about the overall percentages, it really is about what specific actions businesses need to be able to weather this storm."
Thompson said that over three-quarters of respondents also indicated that financial contributions from upper levels of government would be most beneficial.
The survey, which takes about 10 minutes to complete, can be found here.
