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Essential services list released to Burnaby businesses

If there is a shutdown, these are the businesses that would remain open.
BBOT
The Burnaby Board of Trade has posted a list of essential services in British Columbia.

There is a long list of businesses that would be exempt if all non-essential businesses in B.C. were ordered to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Burnaby Board of Trade.

The board released a list from the province today (Thursday, March 26) that covers all the businesses considered essential.

“If an order is issued for non-essential businesses to close, only those designated businesses should remain open,” a post on the board’s website stated. “The Burnaby Board of Trade encourages you to use this list to prepare a plan for how you will communicate to your employees and customers if you need to shut down, or plan for how you will remain open if allowed.”

Categories include health services; law enforcement, public safety, first responders and emergency response personnel; vulnerable population providers; critical infrastructure providers; grocery and agriculture; transportation; sanitation; communications, information sharing and information technology, according to the post by the board.

The list includes a wide variety of business types, from weather forecasters to professional service providers such as lawyers and engineers.

“Any business not on the list is currently allowed to stay open provided if it can adapt its services and workplace to the orders and recommendations around social distancing (two metres between patrons) and crowd size,” the post stated.

However, those businesses that have previously been ordered to close must remain so, the post added.

These include restaurants, except for takeout and delivery; bars, pubs and nightclubs; entertainment venues; casinos; and businesses such as barbershops, hair and nail salons, tattoo shops and spas.

For a full list of essential businesses, click here.