Weekly Liquor Industry Update: January 6, 2022
Dear ABLE BC Members and Industry Colleagues,
Here's what you'll find inside today's update:
Happy New Year! A message from ABLE BC
LDB Update: delivery delays due to heavy snow
Paid sick leave now in effect: what you need to know
Current public health restrictions
Relief funding for businesses ordered closed
Applications open for Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program (THRP)
Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program (THRP) error
BC officials warn: up to one-third of staff may be absent with Omicron
Free info Session on Canada Summer Jobs Funding: January 12
Membership payments now overdue
ABLE BC in the news
Find all past COVID-19 updates here.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year from ABLE BC’s Board of Directors and staff. We hope you had a restful and enjoyable holiday season with family and friends.
As we begin another year during the COVID-19 pandemic, our industry is still struggling amid tremendous uncertainty and financial hardship. Between new public health restrictions aimed at combating the Omicron variant, rising business costs, new paid sick leave obligations, an ongoing labour shortage, overdue liquor policy changes, and the ongoing need for emergency financial support, it will still be a long time before our industry recovers. We all have many challenges before us, and a lot of work to do.
Despite these difficulties, BC’s liquor and hospitality industries have proven to be remarkably resilient. Every day, operators all over BC are finding new and innovative ways to fight for their businesses and the jobs they create. Your passion, creativity, and sheer persistence is both impressive and inspiring. As your representative and advocate, ABLE BC will be continue working tirelessly to support your business for as long as it takes. We continue meet with senior government representatives and public health officials every week to stand up for your interests.
May you enjoy health and happiness in 2022, and may we finally put COVID-19 behind us.
HELPFUL LINKS
ABLE BC Resources
Visit our COVID-19 Resources page for Liquor Primary COVID Best Practices, template signage, recent policy changes, and more.
Public Health Orders
Visit this page to download all current regional and provincial public health orders.
BC's Restart Plan
Visit the BC Government website for more information on the four-step
Restart Plan.
go2HR Resources
Visit the go2HR website for COVID-19 FAQ for Employers, HR information and updates, and more.
LDB Update: Delivery Delays Due to Heavy Snow
LDB Wholesale provided the following update today about possible delivery delays due to heavy snowfall.
Please be advised that heavy snowfall across much of the province is resulting in delivery delays for customers. Current road conditions, particularly in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island areas, are impacting our carriers’ ability to deliver customer orders as scheduled. We are doing everything we can to mitigate the impacts of these challenges on our customers and are working with our vendors and freight carriers to ensure shipments are delivered as quickly as possible.
We ask that customers keep their delivery areas clear of snow and ice in order to ensure our carriers can make safe and efficient deliveries to your facilities.
In her January 4 update, Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry said that businesses should anticipate that as many as a third of their workforces may become ill with COVID-19 and may not be able to come to work.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) has prioritized the health and safety of employees and customers and has continued to implement and maintain safety protocols at its worksites to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
We recognize that our wholesale customers may be impacted by absenteeism as a result of COVID-19 illnesses and are encouraging customers to advise us if they are unable to accept a shipped order due to staffing limitations.
We are pleased to share that the impacts of transportation disruptions due to limited carrier equipment and disruptions to major routes felt throughout the last two months of last year have been continuing to stabilize.
We acknowledge that the past few months have been particularly challenging for customers, and we apologize for any inconvenience that may occur as a result of weather conditions.
We wish you a very happy New Year and look forward to working with you in 2022 as we strive to continue to provide the best possible service to our customers.
Paid Sick Leave Now in Effect
Effective January 1st, employees are now covered by the Employment Standards Act and are entitled to employer paid leave for personal illness and injury. This new, permanent paid sick leave entitlement, will provide up to 5 paid days and 3 unpaid days of job-protected leave each year for eligible employees.
The BC Employment Standards Branch (ESB) website provides information for employees and employers regarding the application of the new paid sick leave entitlement, including eligibility criteria and how to calculate an “average day’s pay”.
To ensure clarity and that our industry is prepared with updated policies and training, the BC Hotel Association has prepared a comprehensive FAQ and can be reviewed here.
If you have questions please contact the ESB toll-free by telephone at: 1-833-236-3700, or visit the ESB website included.
Current Public Health Restrictions
As a reminder, the following public health restrictions are in effect across BC as of December 22, 2021.
Premises which are licensed to serve liquor, and which do not have full meal service, must be closed.
“Full meal service” includes food provided by a caterer to the premises or available from a food truck located beside or on the premises, but does not include snacks, appetizers or tapas on their own.
Patrons must stay in the seat to which they are assigned, or at which they seat themselves, and must not move from table to table or mingle with patrons from other parties when not seated.
No more than 6 patrons may be seated at a table, unless the party consists of one set of parents and their minor children.
Patrons must remain seated, other than in private clubs or tasting rooms with a liquor manufacturer’s licence, except:
To use a self- serve food or drink station, a self-serve lottery ticket dispenser, pay at a pay station, use washroom facilities, to provide assistance to another person who requires care or first aid, when leaving the premises, or
To play pool, billiards, snooker, or darts, or bowl (if there is a bowling alley on premises), with a maximum of five other persons who are in the same party as the patron and who are seated with the patron
There must be a distance of two metres between the backs of the seats of patrons seated at adjacent tables or booths, even if members of the same party are seated at adjacent tables or booths, unless the adjacent tables or booths are separated by physical barriers.
There must be two metres between patrons seated at a counter, unless the patrons are in the same party or they are separated by physical barriers.
If there are physical barriers between tables or booths or seats at a counter, the tops and bottoms of the physical barriers must be positioned so that the physical barriers block the transmission of droplets produced by breathing, talking, coughing or sneezing between patrons who are seated at adjacent tables, booths or seats at a counter.
Dance floors must be closed with physical barriers or occupied with tables. Patrons must not dance on the premises.
Indoor organized gatherings of any size are not allowed. This includes parties, wedding receptions, and other celebrations.
You can find the Food and Liquor Serving Premises Order here.
You can find the Gatherings and Events Order here.
If you have any other questions, please contact Executive Director Jeff Guignard at jeff@ablebc.ca.
New Relief Funding for Businesses Ordered Closed
In case you missed it, the Province of BC has introduced the COVID-19 Closure Relief Grant aimed at assisting BC businesses that were mandated to temporarily shut down through public health orders because of the surge in COVID-19 cases. The fund will provide funding to help affected businesses alleviate some financial pressures and help with expenses including rent, employee wages, insurance, maintenance, and utilities.
Businesses ordered fully closed include:
Gyms, Fitness and Adult Dance Centres
Bars, Lounges and Nightclubs
Event venues that can no longer hold events
Businesses will be able to apply if they had to close under the December 22nd, 2021 Provincial Health Officer orders.
Relief grants of between $1,000 and $10,000 will be provided to eligible businesses based on the number of employees, following a similar formula to the previous Circuit Breaker Relief Grant that supported businesses in the spring of 2021.
Applications for the grant will begin this month with the application process open until the end of February 2022. Business advisors will be able to support and direct applicants through a dedicated call centre that will be set up in early January by the Province and Small Business BC. Businesses will also be able to email questions to: covid@smallbusinessbc.ca
Applications Open for Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program
Applications are now open for the federal Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program.
The following is a list and links to the programs available for application:
1. Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program
2. Canada Recovery Hiring Program
3. Hardest-Hit Business Recovery Program
CRA has has also included detailed information on the various programs and can be found here.
Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program (THRP) Error
The federal government is advising that recent applicants for the Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program (THRP) may have been affected by an error in the calculation spreadsheet for wage and hiring support, which erroneously showed they were ineligible for the THRP when they may have been eligible.
You may have been affected if:
You were applying for period 22 (October 24 to November 20, 2021)
You used a version of the spreadsheet for wage and hiring (version 2021-1) that was available between Tuesday, December 21, 2021 at 6:00 am ET and Friday, December 24, 2021 at 12:00 pm ET
You indicated you are a qualifying tourism or hospitality entity and had both a current-month revenue drop and 12-month average revenue drop over 40%
Step 5 in the spreadsheet showed a zero dollar amount and gave the message that you were not eligible for the THRP
This error was only present in the calculation spreadsheet for wage and hiring support.
What To Do If You Think You Have Been Affected by This Error:
If you did not apply for period 22:
Download the latest version of the spreadsheet and do your calculation again for period 22 to check if you are eligible to apply for the THRP - Wage
If you already applied for wage subsidies under the Hardest-Hit Business Recovery Program (HHBRP) or Canada Recovery Hiring Program (CRHP) for period 22:
Contact the Business Enquiries line at 1-800-959-5525 to make your THRP - Wage application
Visit the federal Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program (THRP) page for the latest information.
Officials Warn BC Businesses Must Prepare to Have One-Third of Staff Absent with Omicron
BC health officials warned today that many BC businesses could soon be dealing with additional staffing shortages due to the rapid spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
With unprecedented levels of transmission occurring in communities, PHO Dr. Bonnie Henry urged business owners to start putting together contingency plans so they can keep operating if a significant number of employees are forced to call in sick.
Case numbers have repeatedly broken all-time records in recent weeks to the point that officials estimate actual transmission could be up to five times higher given that testing capacity is at maximum levels.
Dr. Henry said the government is not imposing any more COVID-19 restrictions yet, only urging businesses to prepare themselves for potential disruptions.
Click here to read the full story.
Free Info Session on Canada Summer Jobs Funding
Have you started thinking about your summer hiring needs? Canada Summer Jobs supports non-profits, small businesses (50 or fewer employees), and public sector employers to provide quality summer work experiences for youth aged 15 to 30 years old.
Service Canada’s Canada Summer Jobs program is an initiative of the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy which aims to provide quality work experiences for youth to develop skills and gain paid work experience to successfully transition into the labour market.
Date: January 12th at 1:00 pm (PT)
Talent MATCH has partnered with Service Canada to bring you this free info session featuring Canada Summer Jobs representatives Line Noel and Melanie Greene, who will explain how the program works and how to apply.
Note that the Call for Applications for the Canada Summer Jobs will open soon and close in late January, 2022.
The Talent MATCH Program is a collaboration between the BC Alliance for Arts + Culture, the BC Museums Association, go2HR, and the Association for Co-operative Education & Work Integrated Learning BC/Yukon.
This info session is free, but you must register for it here.
REMINDER: Membership Payments are now Overdue
Thank you to all members who have already paid their membership dues for 2021-2022. Your faith in us, and your prompt payment, ensures we can continue our important advocacy on your behalf.
If you have not already remitted payment, your account is now overdue. Please contact jeff@ablebc.ca to arrange payment or to request a copy of your invoice.
To sign up now, please visit ablebc.ca.
Recent Media
Over the past few weeks, our Executive Director Jeff Guignard appeared in media several times to advocate for our industry amid new public health restrictions implemented during the holiday season:
Global News: B.C. bars not ready to write off New Year’s, despite new COVID restrictions
CBC News: B.C.'s new public health restrictions come into effect Monday
Global News: Hold the drinks, and the dancing: B.C. orders bars and nightclubs to shut down
Global News: After tough year, B.C. pubs and restaurants aiming for better in 2022