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There are no local figures yet, as to how many have lost their job in these first weeks of the pandemic, but it is widespread and deep, she adds. Manufacturers have shut down, from two weeks to a month, non-essential services such as retailers are closed and restaurants and bars are reduced to take-out only.

“It is early. We don’t have a sense of how many people have been laid off and returning to work,” said Mountenay.

Nationally about four million people are expected to apply for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), which pays workers up to $2,000 a month. More than one million have applied for employment insurance benefits, of which only just over 150,000 have been processed, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a recent press conference. He also said a streamlined application process will be launched for the CERB by April 6.

“It will impact across the board. You never know who is close to the edge” and may not reopen or will reopen as a smaller business, said Mountenay.

“We see this in the manufacturing sector, but there is trickle down to other areas — restaurants, clothing stores. It may impact retailers,” as well as the food, tourism and agricultural sectors, she added.

“There is potential for a lot of change out of this.”

Ericka Tymkin knows a lot about change. She was a server at Toboggan for nearly a year when she was laid off last week and has struggled since to file employment insurance. Since her benefit would be small — servers earn most of their money off tips and EI is based on her minimum wage — she is also asking Service Canada whether she can access the $2,000 a month emergency fund.