City of Abbotsford Launches “Business Visitation Program” in the Middle of Pandemic

In an incredible announcement, that seems to coincide with a great deal of “tone deafness” coming out of City Hall these days, the Abbotsford Economic Development Office has announced a “Business Visitation Program”. That’s right…in the middle of a pandemic where social distancing, wearing of personal protection and basic common sense is required, the City of Abbotsford will send out a live human being to “visit” your business. The programs stated goals include:

“Through the Business Visitation Program, we want to hear and capture the unique stories of the businesses we visit, and share their stories with a wider audience.

In addition we will:

• Deepen relationships and connections between business owners and the City Ensure business owners feel valued and respected
• Discover ways we can help owners to retain and expand their business
• Connect businesses to resources as well as one to one support
• Provide business owners with a platform to make recommendations to the City
• Gain unique and valuable insight that will allow us to adapt our business retention and expansion program to the constantly evolving needs of our community”

They will accomplish all these lofty goals in person!

I think we can debate the efficacy of having a city worker visit a business with promises of business expansion and more, but one thing is not up for debate…

When people need real leadership to insure that all our citizens are safe from COVID 19, to have the City of Abbotsford set the poor example of promoting face to face visits, is idiotic and perhaps negligent.

If you think “negligent” is a strong word, consider that long term care workers traveling from facility to facility were largely responsible for many deaths over the last 6 months, the City of Abbotsford now wants to send a live, potentially virus-carrying individual from business to business to essentially “make them feel good”.

Well folks, they won’t feel good if they get COVID.

This is truly a moronic move. What do you think? Send us a message on Twitter or register to comment below!