What this means for operations?

The most significant measures involve the closure of recreational facilities and in-room dining at restaurants.  Retail operations are asked to reduce to 50% of their capacity.  I have asked CPHO for clarity on the "50% of what" question and will share once I have.  

Masking, hand washing, and physical distancing should all continue and there are also some updated measures around gathering.

https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/alert/circuit-breaker-phase-effect-december-7-2020

New programs

More will be online tonight and we are assured web forms can be live by Thursday to handle applications.  Will forward links as they become available.

1. Emergency Payment for workers- For any workers or self-employed individuals who have either completely lost their income or have had their hours reduced by at least 12 hours/week for December 7-21 directly due to the public health order.  This is an employee application and we will aim to turnaround payments within a week.  In addition, most should be eligible for one of the federal income support programs available here: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/covid19-emergency-benefits.html

2. Employee Gift Card program- this is a repeat of a program we ran in the Spring to provide $100 grocery cards for workers laid off due to the recent public health order (December 7-21).  This is an employer application as that was a feature employers seemed to like last time.

3. E-commerce supports- We do have an existing program through Innovation PEI to assist companies with setting up e-commerce sites which was recently increased to provide 50% up to $2,500 for ecommerce sites (50% to $1,000 for traditional websites) https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/service/apply-web-presence-assistance. Innovation PEI staff will prioritize processing of these claims at this time to support any businesses pivoting due to COVID restrictions.  If/when new COVID response programs are added, we may need to shift towards prioritizing those programs.