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Businesses warned of need to prepare for pandemic
Published on April 6, 2007
WELLAND -- Small- and medium-sized businesses need to do more to prepare for the pandemic experts warn is coming to avoid being crippled by the outbreak of deadly influenza, experts in helping companies to prepare for emergencies say.
Three such experts led senior officials with Canadian Tire Financial Services (CTFS) in Welland through a seminar this week on what's known as business continuity in the face of an emergency.
At a business pandemic preparedness session held in Niagara Falls last spring, experts warned Niagara businesses to have a comprehensive plan in place to minimize the pandemic's toll. The Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918 killed millions of people worldwide, and it's expected the next pandemic will kill far more people because the world is much more inter-connected today.
Ann Wyganowski, vice-president of Toronto-based HZX Business Continuity Planning, said after the session Monday that larger corporations like CTFS are on sound footing when it comes to being ready for the pandemic, which will keep employees away in droves and disrupt the delivery of goods and parts, potentially crippling many companies.
But many smaller firms, lacking the resources and struggling just to find the hours to run their business, have no contingency plan in place, she said.
Scott Ashley, president of London, Ont.-based Respond Solutions Inc. and The Pandemic 101 Corporation, said part of the reason for that is that many people don't like to plan for the worst.
"Most people aren't proactive -- they're reactionary," he said. "During hurricane season, most people wait until they see the surge before they go out and buy supplies, and by then it's all gone."
Ashley said smaller businesses are increasingly aware that, historically, we're overdue for a pandemic. But that isn't translating into an action plan to prepare for it, he said. At last spring's pandemic planning session, experts talked about such steps as stockpiling supplies, moving backup equipment into place, putting technology in place for communications without face-to-face meetings, ensuring meticulous hygiene among staff, having such things as surgical masks and gloves on-hand, and arranging to purchase products made locally because the trucking industry could grind to a halt.
"It's (pandemic) really close," said Ashley. "The reality is that people aren't stepping up to the plate to get ready."
Michael Smith, founder of Oakville-based ReadySmith, said emergency planning is much like exercising to work your muscles: companies need to have a pandemic plan in place and continually test it to make sure it's in good shape.
"Getting ready for these bad things is a new thing for them," he said. "Most organizations haven't considered the entire spectrum of things that can happen to them."
Karrie Robertson, manager of business continuity planning for CTFS, said her firm has had an emergency plan in place to deal with crises since 2001 and it's continuously updated. She joked that it's her job to worry.
Ashley said the fact the province is stockpiling supplies such as surgical masks and gloves should be a warning sign for smaller businesses to immediately begin planning for the pandemic.
"They're (province) spending millions and millions of dollars," he said. "When the government start to get really scared, you should listen."
Ashley said Niagara and Ontario can't expect other regions to come to their aid when the pandemic hits, because those regions will be struggling with their own situations and they'll be hoarding supplies. When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, it showed that when an area is hit by a largescale, natural phenomenon, it's pretty much on its own, he said.