Dear Members,
After more than a month of complete turmoil and upheaval, our period of intense crisis management is finally easing off. It seems that the government assistance programmes that are of most benefit to us have now been announced, although there are still some outstanding details. The Board and managers have all settled into our new way of doing business. We’ve put all our emergency measures in place, are preparing for various long-term scenarios and are now just waiting to see when and how restrictions will be lifted.
Here are the developments over the past few weeks:
Staff
The federal government’s 75% wage subsidy is enabling us to keep all of our staff on until at least June 6, which is the end date of the current programme. So far, our three managers have been working full-time and the store staff is working part-time on projects announced in the last update.
Store
With salaries largely taken care of, our single biggest expense is rent on the Granville Island store. So far, we have been paying full rent but we are exploring a number of options for a reduction, including retroactive reduction. The recently announced Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance programme for small and medium business may be applicable to us; details are still forthcoming. We are also working with the Granville Island Council, the Granville Island Business and Community Association and CMHC, and fully expect to be receiving significant rent relief.
Market
The Christmas Market remains a big question mark as we all wait to see what sort of restrictions we can expect to see in the fall. In the meantime, Andrea and Rossanne are continuing with their strategy of maintaining planning without making any financial commitments.
AGM
We will be holding the AGM via Zoom at 3pm on Wednesday June 3; you can expect to receive your AGM package in the mail very soon. For those of you who have not yet had any experience with Zoom, we will be hosting a practice session the week before, at 3pm on Wednesday May 27. Details to follow.
Your AGM package will include all the reports that are normally presented in person at the AGM. By sending them to you in advance this year, and not going through them at the AGM, we will be freeing up maximum time for questions and discussion. We will be happy to address any questions and listen to any comments you may have concerning the reports but we anticipate that the interest will be in what lies ahead rather than in what happened last year.
Wishing you all well in these trying times.
Warm regards.
Circle Craft Board
