Jeff Green | Aug 12, 2020


The Frontenac County Economic Development department has conducted its third business survey since the onset of COVID-19. The first was in early April, the second in late May, and the third was completed on August 3rd.

“Even though the surveys all received a good response, many different businesses responded to each survey. Of the 96 responses to this latest survey, 40% were new responses, so we need to treat these as independent snap shots of what businesses are thinking at different times. We can’t consider them cumulative in any real way,” said Richard Allen, Manager of economic development for Frontenac County.”

The 96 responses is a higher number than the May survey but lower than the initial survey in April.

One of Allen’s initial takeaways from the survey is that the pandemic has had a massive impact on their business in 2020, with over 50% of respondents rated the impact as 7 or higher on a scale of 10, with 40% saying their revenue is 50% lower in 2020 than it was in 2019.

“Those are dramatic results, but we also found, however, that more businesses are saying they expect to survive this than in April or May. It seems that now that we are fully in it, people are saying that it is really bad but they expect to get through it and are hoping for a better year next year. That might change if there is a second lockdown, but that seems to be where many are at for now.”

In terms of sectors, the largest percentage response was from the accommodation sector (11)

This sector has been volatile through the pandemic, and while Allen said that “the phones were ringing off the hook since early June, new clients brought some challenges because while a lot of the accommodators book for a week at a time in a normal year, the requests this summer have been for shorter stays, but still things seem to have been better than people thought they would be back in early May.”

One interesting thing that the survey showed, however, is that even though the major market for accommodations in Frontenac County this summer has been visitors from elsewhere in the province, many of those in the local industry are not that comfortable being exposed to people from communities that have not been as successful as KFL&A in keeping transmission of COVID-19 to a bare minimum (there have only been 14 cases in Frontenac County, none since June)

35% of the accommodators who answered the surveyed said they were neutral when asked if they were comfortable renting to visitors from across the province, 50% said they were uncomfortable, and only 15% said the were comfortable.

“Most of the businesses, even though they need that clientele to fill their rooms, were nervous. On this question, neutral was not a positive response. This shows were a lot of us are at,” said Allen.

That being said, the survey showed that most of the clientele, 75%, followed the COVID-19 protocols that are in place.

The key takeaway from the survey, according to Allen, is that businesses are now understand what they are facing and that is easier to deal with than the uncertainty they faced in April. “Most are not doing great, but they think they can ride it out.”

In terms of his department, the popular Open Farms event will be happening this year, with a record 14 farms participating.

It is being planned as a virtual event in September and early October, but there may be a live component now that stage 3 is well underway. Details will be released in the coming weeks.

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