6 Okanagan chambers of commerce call on B.C. to end vaccine mandates
That 10 per cent of B.C.’s population is unvaccinated, and that segment continues to be excluded from some parts of society, which leads to a financial hit.
The chambers estimated the financial hit at $1.4 billion, with monthly spending on restaurants , entertainment and recreation and fitness . That B.C. tourism financially fell to $7.1 billion in 2020 from $22.3 billion in 2019. Figures for 2021 were not yet available.COVID-19 restriction confusion in border communities
“We anticipate it will suffer even further as many will choose to take holidays in provinces without restrictions over spring break and as we approach the warmer weather,” reads the letter.Staff shortages and vaccinated versus unvaccinated dialogue “has created a detrimental division in our communities that we may never fully recover from,” says the letter.
It also says “transparency has been requested from our government by our local chambers in the past months, and those requests have been ignored, but there is no denying that the harms of these mandates cannot be ignored and will only worsen with time.”Cruise industry welcomes certainty of new COVID-19 rules© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.