British Columbia

Snowed-in businesses in Victoria hurts workers, owners' bottom lines

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Advocate for workers says many lack paid sick days — which makes unplanned days off tough to handle

Tyler Twiss said the snow was not good for business at Simply Pure Ice & Water, but they managed to make their deliveries. (Liam Britten/CBC)

It would be pretty embarrassing, Tyler Twiss admitted, if an ice company shut down because of snow.

But Twiss, of Simply Pure Ice and Water, admitted his business faced challenges in the record-breaking snow that hit Vancouver Island this week.

The company supplies dry ice for use in shipping. The dry ice is delivered from Ferndale, Wash., a few times a week, thousands of kilograms at a time, to his shop.

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"It's pretty essential. Quite a few hospitals and laboratories rely on dry ice year to ship samples," Twiss said.

"If we don't have it, it causes a big stir, so we definitely have to maintain that stock and supply, which we do."

The accumulated snowfall dumped on Victoria in recent days began to thaw out Wednesday evening but not before many businesses had to close their doors for at least a day. (Liam Britten/CBC)

A few of those deliveries were cancelled this week, but fortunately, Simply Pure had enough stock to get through.

Twiss's ice company was not the only business on Vancouver Island to face weather-related challenges. Many shops had to close for at least a day this week because getting materials, labour and customers through their front doors was a struggle.

Staff safety an issue

At Nowhere, a 30-seat, rotating-menu restaurant on Douglas Street in downtown Victoria, manager Laura Cousins spent Wednesday morning making bread for dinner.

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Nowhere made the decision to stay closed Tuesday, Cousins said, because it was simply too risky to ask employees — who could be at the restaurant until midnight or 1 a.m. PT — to travel home when road conditions were poor and transit was unreliable in the snow.

Laura Cousins said staff safety was the concern when closing unexpectedly this week — but the decision did cost the restaurant lost sales. (Liam Britten/CBC)

"There's just no way that we could, in good conscience, keep the restaurant open," Cousins said.

She estimated the restaurant lost about $1,000 in sales by staying closed Tuesday. If it had been on a weekend, the loss could have been closer to $3,000 or $4,000.

"Which is not ideal," Cousins said, adding the staff had to come first.

"It is very difficult to keep staff in this industry in Victoria," she said. "So, we really would prioritize all of our staff over one day's worth of … income."

Nowhere manager Laura Cousins said she was glad the restaurant would be open for Valentine's Day after closing earlier in the week. (Liam Britten/CBC)

Employee, employer problems

Along many of Victoria's main streets and in strip malls and all through downtown, numerous businesses were closed for at least a day. CBC News heard from or saw social media posts from about a dozen.

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Eric Nordal of the Retail Action Network said many of those businesses were shops and restaurants that employ "precarious" employees without sick days or enough benefits to cover unplanned days off like snow days.

"People need to have just a little bit of room to to be able to take those days off and not have to worry about being able to afford groceries or being able to pay rent that month, because they weren't able to work for a few days," Nordal said.

Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce CEO Catherine Holt said businesses told her that even if they did stay open, they faced problems with staffing this week.

Many couldn't safely get in with insufficient public transit. Others had to miss work, because they had kids out of class and there aren't enough child-care spaces in town.

"I think when we have an unexpected event like this, it magnifies the problems," Holt said.

More snow is expected to fall beginning Thursday afternoon, with Environment Canada issuing a new weather warning for the South Coast.

With files from Sterling Eyford