Dear RAIC members, Thank you to all who submitted a response to the RAIC COVID-19 Pulse Survey—either as an individual or representing a firm or organization. We received hundreds of responses and are in the process of analyzing almost 2000 comments from the survey. Preliminary analysis indicates the following most frequently mentioned themes: Financial hardship and immediate need for cash flow - “Cash flow to sustain basic living expenses”
- “Self-employed single-member practices have little or no government support that 'fits'”
Human resources, specifically, actual and impending layoffs and strong desire to retain staff - “Support for keeping staff on payroll. A temporary layoff is still a layoff”
- “Concerned about the ability to remobilize quickly when the crisis eases/passes”
Safety concerns related to virus transmission - “Knowledge about how we can safely continue work on construction sites”
- “Government of Canada Health information, job site safety practice information”
Technology - “More WiFi bandwidth and [internet providers] to reduce their rates so that our staff are not forced to pay additional costs while working from home”
- “Extra costs related to new remote working video and internet subscriptions”
Mental health - “It has totally changed my life, and my daily routine”
- “Need support resources to share with staff on stress and anxiety”
- “Severe financial instability and uncertainty affecting practice viability and potentially the mental health of individuals remaining in the firm”
- “Isolation”
- “Uncertainty for future”
Need to safely and quickly return to operations, specifically, resumption of projects and RFPs - “Severe financial instability and uncertainty affecting practice viability and potentially the mental health of individuals remaining in the firm”
- “Greater clarity, i.e. construction continue or not”
We expect to release a summary of the survey results and all survey trends the week of April 20, 2020. The RAIC is committed to working through these challenging times and supporting the community as best possible. We will continue to advocate for architects and the profession as rebuilding and restructuring begin. We are also working to enable solutions in response to the themes expressed by you. The RAIC sent its fourth letter to the federal Minister of Finance on April 7, 2020 sharing preliminary information from the Pulse Survey. Upcoming advocacy efforts will focus on urging the government to ensure the emergency wage subsidy benefit is available to architects and firms regardless of size and extending some of the subsidy benefits to small business owners among other important issues.
On the topic of financial hardship, to assist firms and businesses with financial management during COVID-19, we have developed a free one-hour webinar that highlights the immediate steps you can take to manage the financial risks to your business. Financial Management during COVID-19 will be held on April 14, 2020, at 1:00 pm ET. The session is open to anyone, and RAIC members are eligible to receive 1 CEU. A recording of this webinar will be available on the RAIC Learning Management System by April 17, 2020. This session is now full. To add your name to the wait list for the live event, please click here. For your reference, the Government of Canada began accepting applications for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit and Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy starting April 6, 2020. Read more about other supports in Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan. Many of you continue to support our advocacy efforts by writing or calling your member of parliament—or federal ministers. Thank you for this support. We encourage you to continue to participate and amplify the voice of the architectural profession. Please let us know the results of your efforts by emailing info@raic.org so, we may assist your efforts. Your health, safety and well-being continue to be our top priority. We will continue to monitor the quickly evolving situation and will keep you informed with regular and ongoing communications. In between these messages, please check our COVID-19: Updates, Information and Advocacy page for more information. |
