SYDNEY, N.S. — The time has come, Ed Gillis playfully said as he carried an antique clock into his Charlotte Street bookstore early Thursday morning.
Like many business owners across the province, the man behind Ed’s Books and More, has been counting the seconds until he can open Friday, for the first time since COVID-19 protocols closed his doors in March.
“Now we have a ray of hope,” Gillis said. “We are entitled to grasp that. We’ll see how it works out.”
His popular bookstore shut its doors on March 16, just a few days ahead of when the province mandated similar closures.
Cautious optimism, a washing station and masks will be employed when he greets customers this morning.
Social distancing measures won’t be a problem, either, as it’s rare to have more than 8-10 people at one time in the shop that is spread over three different floors.
“It’s uncharted waters for all of us. We have to trust the federal and provincial authorities. We follow the guidelines and are pretty careful around here.”
Life is also slowly coming back to Spring Garden Road in Halifax.
Brett Stillwell, franchisee of the Pita Pit, says it’s great to see businesses along the road reopen and people walking by again. Sidewalk traffic is a significant part of his customer base.
His shop was closed for nearly eight weeks, opening with a five-person limit on May 15. He’s looking forward to having tables and seating again, one day.
“We were so isolated and it definitely impacted our business. We were still really slow for the first week,” he said.
“The (Central Library) is a huge resource for us and that’s what keeps us alive.”
Government financial support has made a huge difference, Stillwell said, helping him reopen and supporting a small staff.
“Slowly, every business that opens, everyone is being so nice, coming in. We’re trying to support each other as much as possible,” he said.
“You can see it happening, but patience is a virtue I would say.”
It’s small, resilient and innovative businesses like Ed’s Books that has George Karaphillis, the dean of Cape Breton University's Shannon School of Business, confident about a quick recovery for the economy.
“They always come up with a solution,” he said. “If they see a challenge, they come up with a solution. Most of them have done that.”
The pandemic precautions that temporarily closed many businesses should be considered more like a natural disaster than a financial crisis, he said. That’s another indicator of the potential for a quick recovery.
“It did not cause a problem to the structure of the economy. It’s just that things are not going to be the same for a while.”
Not all companies — big and small — will make it through, he said. But generally speaking, most sectors of the economy will bounce back quickly, except for the tourism industry, that might take a bit longer to recover.
Automatic stabilizers in Canada such as employment insurance have always aided recovery, he said. This time, more extensive programs were rolled out to assist workers in all sectors — students and seniors as well.
“I don’t think people are feeling bad because all these measures came into play. That’s something that is going to help to get the economy back on its feet again.”
It’s tricky for a sidewalk-based business to operate under social distancing rules, but the Dairy Bar on South Park Street in Halifax has figured out a system to keep people moving and apart.
“We’ve had to reimagine our entire customer service model to keep both our customers and staff safe,” said Emma Adamski, co-owner.
She’s expecting a different summer ahead. International tourists will be rare, but she said she’s looking forward to focusing on local customers.
It’s been a tough go for this small business: Thursday was the first day the little shop had been open since September. Dorian toppled a crane onto a nearby building under construction, requiring part of the street to be closed. Then a pandemic hit.
But a note on their tip jar is a nod to their recovery efforts: “TIP LIKE A CRANE.”
“We’re so lucky and privileged to be here and doing what we’re doing, and we can’t wait to see everybody after this long, horrible last few months.”
Kathleen Yurchesyn, CEO of the Cape Breton Regional Chamber of Commerce, said the businesses she’s been in touch with are excited to get back to work, even with new social distancing precautions in place.
“I think businesses, at the end of the day, will try to do as much as they can to get back to normal as quickly as possible,” she said.
“But we all know that it is still going to be difficult with the health and safety measures that are in place. I think it’s up to us as a community to think local first and make conscious decisions to look to our community and local business first as we make decisions around purchasing.”
To help businesses adjust to new social distancing measures, the chamber, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and the Sydney Downtown Development Association will launch a reopening guide for businesses Friday.
Yurchesyn said the guide will be comprehensive but easy to use and include key actions for businesses to take.
The chamber will then publish in Saturday’s Cape Breton Post a list of measures for the public to consider as they reintegrate into the economy.
The chamber asks that people stay informed on regulations and that they be patient with business owners and restaurants and with one another as they "get introduced to this new normal."
“Long gone are the days where we can run into a business and run out,” she said. “Measures are all new to us. Nobody is doing it for any other reason than to keep their workplace safe and to keep you safe.”
Gillis said he missed the business and knows customers did, too, as evidenced by those often caught looking in his windows whenever he was spotted feeding the cats that make a popular addition to his shop.
“Our whole social structure has been damaged,” he said. “We have to make some efforts to get up and get at it.”
