COVID-19 SURVEY 2 - 6 Months Later

QUESTION 9
What would you like to see CMHC do to help support businesses moving forward?

Continue to offer support/discounted rent/ government assistance 

promote ALL tenants. advertise free parking. ensure rent relief continues through 2021

We are happy with cmhc’s efforts

Rent abatement. Free parking. Promotion. Bring back locals.

Better Advertising for ALL the shops on Granville Island, not just focus on the market. Keep the parking free for the next 6-12 months or until business returns to normal.

Keep the free parking, advertising to locals 

Marketing, hire photographers for quality photos of merchants and storefronts

Advertise more than their own tenants. Show people there’s more to the island than the market, build a fuller experience to entice locals.

Rent relief, continued free parking and effective advertising. I would also like to see CMHC moving forward with a plan for the Emily Carr North Building. I hope to one day see that building full of working artist studios and gallery spaces.

The rent relief helps a lots. I am very grateful for the program.

My biggest concern is a covid outbreak in the market and VCH shutting us down. I don't understand why masks aren't mandatory in the market. I see so many market staff not wearing masks as well as some stores with no barriers up at all. CMHC employees aren't all wearing masks either and the security guards too. I think the entry and exit of the market is a disaster as well. I have lost so many customers that have been long term to this because they are frustrated. We need better crowd control in the market and more signage.

Reduced rent for all 

Give us the rent reimbursement etc that was sent by the gov to do do ASAP - taking way to long to process our application in netloft. We are a non profit.

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Rent relief for non direct CMHC tenants

We did get rent relief and their advertising campaign has really focused on locals, especially w free parking. As we move out of the pandemic (fingers crossed), I hope Cmhc will do another campaign to make people come back.

I am very happy for the rent relieve. It has changed the relevance of some of the above questions since it I won't have to pay back 100% of my differed rent though I still think the worst is yet to come.

Make certain that head leasers get supported so that they can support renters. Support by publicity initiatives for delivery service. Have delivery service go beyond food. Offer free delivery within a certain area or over a certain price. Create a safe depot for pickup, delivery on an island-wide basis.

Keep parking FREE. Stop eliminating parking around the island. Stop blocking roadways & eliminating parking spaces for special events on busy days. Let people drive on island so that THEY CAN CARRY AWAY PURCHASES! Call it a day with Popina; paint it market colours, find something that will sell out of that bloody awful mess of a building.

Rent assistance for Head Lease holders so they can pass it in to merchants not dealing with CMHC

Already being done.

Finish processing the rent relief applications so that we know what coverage we can expect, and if we will need to make more aggressive financial cutting plans for the next year.

I would like to know, from CMHC that we are in this together. I don't get that message from them. I know they are doing what they can from a management point of view - which is great. It would be nice to feel that from an artistic view point.

Use some of the government grant money to assist the day vendors with outdoor markets or pop ups. *update pending corrections on website for artists... this timing is crucial for our Christmas sales which would normally be starting now. *Use bulletin board in market for dayvendors to advertise a photo of themselves, booth, and/or products along with contact info to keep customers connected to us. Leave it for us to post.....but ...keep it up with a posting defying the space as “where to find our daybendors”... And supporting the dayvendor program. Definately move forward on the spring/summer outdoor market if social distancing does not enable us to return indoors to the market. Any empty store spaces... open them up to dayvendors first to have a pop up store .... collaboration of all who are interested... just as we did in the net loft when the bookstore first closed. Run it in similar structure as that used previously.

Find a positive way artisan markets can open for Christmas and most certainly in the spring. Distancing, masking, plastic walls, hand washing are all easy -no excuse. Please get going. Instead of crowding everyone in, rotate shorter stints. Everyone gets 3 days, or something. Big space between tables. It's do-able. This shouldn't take 3 years to organize.

The rent relief program, while it makes sense for a for-profit org, makes no sense for non-profit. The program needs to be overhauled.

Continue its local advertising efforts Keep parking free Increase decorations and seasonal lighting for all areas during the holiday season.

Rental relief

Reduce rent.

CMHC has been very supportive. Maybe promote more buy local.

By offering a more easy access for rent assistance. Give a clear, straight forward and easy guidelines.

Advertise businesses outside the netloft and market. There's a lot to the island and people sometimes have a very limited view.

There’s nothing they can do we need tourism

Continue with GI promotional/marketing initiatives.

Rent relief is great and and enough time to pay what we will have to pay will really help.

Keep doing advertising but mention that there is free parking. Removes one barrier to coming to Granville island. Also there are lots of one of a kind gift items available through local artisans.

No rent or moorage rate increases for next few years. 

Continued discounted rent.

Promote the Public Market.

Keep parking free, at least 3 hours, for 2 years minimum. Marketing to locals. Outdoor events staged safely.

We have received rent relief - so that is relief. When rent relief is over in March - going forward rents must come down for tenants to be able to stay

I think CMHC is doing a good job. 

Continue to advertise GI as their current efforts have been noticeable and beneficial by attracting our own local communities and surrounding municipalities to revisit GI

Increase promotion & advertising. Work w/ Coastal Health to move more quickly on more seating, visitors...

More channels of tenant coordination. The 3 people are a good start but there needs to be more.

QUESTION 10
What would you like to see GIBCA do to help support businesses during the holiday season?

April 2020? most of us were forced to close temporarily mid March. Just in case you weren't aware... your website is down... More information sharing would be great. Robert's efforts to connect and promote are awesome. would be great to see ALL executive team do this. If not willing/unable, recruit new.

We appreciate gib A’s efforts. Keep promoting and connecting. 

Major decor. Outdoor music. 

Advertising

Maybe a social media campaign to promote Christmas sales... perhaps each of us could create a post that highlights our single best Holiday Gift Item. We could have all the posts on the GI and/or GIBCA webpage and link to it from our own pages. It could be a one-stop-holiday-shop promotion that shows the best of the best on Granville Island.

Some strategy to create festive atmosphere on the GI. i.e. attractive signage at the entrance, 

Promote shopping local , food ,gifts and services. 

Help with finding profesional advice where to save cost, Thank You.

Keep doing what you are doing and work for rent relief.

Be on Instagram and contact media: print and tv, to let Vancouver know Christmas isn't cancelled on Granville Island :)

Help advise businesses who could sell to government and business entities for holiday presents etc. 

Communicate, gather merchants ( online? ) to discuss situation/ideas/provide a community.

Not sure what GIBCA could do

Authorize/facilitate extended business hours to facilitate customer numbers while adhering to COVID-19 social-distancing protocols.

A dayvendor craft show(s) in the parkade? Customers could sign up in advance (or days of if spontaneous... ) at a specific time slot to shop. 45 minute intervals , then change over. Or .... have maximum amount of people let in... and as they leave... more people are let in (just like at a store) ie....chapters. Following covid guidelines. Have people shop in their “bubbles”, with a maximum of 2-3 people per bubble /per table. Wipe down of individual booths throughout. This is being done in stores.... this is being done for the culture crawl.... and was done for outdoor summer markets. Please.... let’s do this. Some income is better than none.... and with advertising... I believe our regular Christmas shoppers will come. The past few months have been more than devastating. Seeing something move forward to open up hands on, in person sales would be a possibility of possibility. Thanks for your time and consideration to these ideas.

Find a way to have a few tables open to sell our market wares in person. As #9 shows, it is possible. Just don't crowd people in. Rotate, everyone gets 2 days or something to fit us all in. Or everyone brings their own tent as all other outside markets do in the lower mainland. Put a fence around the area to limit crowds. This is not expensive. If folks can safely buy apples, they can safely buy artisan products from a covid point of view! Thank you for all you are doing! It gives us a glimmer of hope.

Joint Christmas promotions and collective advertising and development of a Granville Island Gift Card 

Try to attract more traffic by organizing more events but more equally distribute and not congesting everything together for a specific week or weekend.

Help incentivize people to shop on Granville Island.

Promote GI as a place to visit during holiday period. increase Social Media efforts to strategically attract people to the Island.

Promote promote promote!

Advertise G.I. as a Christmas shopping destination

Is it possible to do something around shopping for Christmas locally. No waiting for parcels, support local, etc

Promote all businesses that are open.

Ask locals to shop locally and save jobs and small businesses. Emphasize free parking. Shroud the parking signs to stop the confusion of people who read them and approach the meters to pay, only to find it's free. Stop wasting their time. Make some FREE PARKING signs to cover the parking rule signs.

Promote how absolutely amazing Granville Island is for locals to visit - and how possible it is to keep distance, wear masks, sanitize hands and stay safe and healthy while having an amazing experience.

I think GIBCA is doing a good job too! 

Keep doing what they have been doing. Helping us by supporting initiatives put forward by CMHC. Continuing to understand the challenges each of us face and has been very comforting.

Promotion & advertising. More cross-promotion.

Be our voice. Occasionally we feel the CMHC can be intimidating and lack empathy. ...occasionally.