Business community being misrepresented during COVID pandemic: NSBA executive

Keith Moen is concerned with how the business community is being represented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The North Saskatoon Business Association executive director said there has been rhetoric coming from both sides when it comes to the pandemic — those who want a complete shutdown of the economy and those who believe the pandemic is a hoax.

“The answer is somewhere in the middle,” Moen told Gormley on Monday. “The two polarizing sides of the spectrum are getting all of the attention and so when there is some credibility or some credence or some media attention given to some of the more right-wing-leaning people, they tend to cast them off as outliers or weirdos or just whackos that don’t have a handle on what’s happening really in the world.

“What’s happening is there is a coronavirus (and) we have to deal with it but we also have to live with it and by living with it, that means we have to carry on and manage life as we can. And doing so means keeping the economy open (and) keeping people at work.”

He feels the business community is being perceived as uncaring and wanting to sacrifice public health for the sake of profits.

“The business community is often perceived to be not as it is and that’s a challenge that we have to overcome,” Moen said. “What we’re generally doing is just creating a good or service for a market that’s there. If the market is not there, the good or service isn’t supplied and it’s not provided.

“The business people are interested in creating something and doing something in terms of building the community, building the economy and creating jobs and creating opportunities.”

Moen said a shutdown would cause societal and economic impacts that people don’t realize.

“It would have huge, massive, unintended consequences,” Moen said.

According to what he has been hearing from people, Moen said a shutdown would lead to the loss of 100,000 jobs overnight and about $500 million would be needed in government support because of that.

Moen said a number of employees were able to work during the lockdown earlier this year, but there was a large disconnect when it came to what people perceived as essential services.

“Will (a lockdown) actually help? I’m not certain that the evidence is there that would suggest that it would,” Meon said.

He said many entrepreneurs and mom-and-pop shops face a reality where they took chances on running a business with no guarantee of success.

“So many of us are working harder than ever before for less money than what we ever thought than those in the public sector — and God bless them,” he said. “It’s not about creating a wedge where there isn’t one. They’re getting overtime and they’re getting more money than what they’ve ever experienced in their lives and for good reason because they’re working hard and deserving of it.

“The fact is business people are working just as hard, I would suggest, for less money — in fact, losing money. They’re trying to cut their losses and do what they can to keep the lights on and keep the doors open as much as they can.”

Moen said the incremental approach the Saskatchewan government has taken is appreciated by the business community due to the problems a widespread lockdown could create.

“What (a lockdown) is going to do is just fan the flames of this rhetoric on both sides and it’s just becoming so loud on both sides,” Moen said. “Unfortunately with mainstream media, they tend to be more left-leaning and so they’re going to fan those flames a little bit more and so that becomes part of the propaganda machine.

“People are going to start believing everything that they’re hearing on that side and, quite frankly, we need to create that balance. We need a government that listens to what the challenges are, to understand that businesses are here in support of them and to hear that we have their backs when it comes to a targeted approach because that, in our estimation, is the bigger, better solution than a widespread lockdown.”