Canadain tech companies have to act properly while the covid-19 damaged economy

With the spreading coronavirus, more Canadian tech companies are taking severe actions to help mitigate the negative impacts of the virus.

Business owners had to act quickly and make decisions to guarantee the safety of their employees and the operation of their businesses. Decisions came out, especially as the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

Digital space as the rescue

While being in self-isolation, Justin Trudeau announced new measures to help Canadian business sectors. Prime Minister decided to help sectors that got hit mostly by the pandemic. Experts believe that the Canadian financial team will give many businesses the chance to start their online platforms easily. Adapting to digital space is very important, especially in this period.  Canadain government started caring about digital space back in 2016. When Justin Trudeau took the power in his hands, he decided to make digital business space as a high priority. All big changes first happened in the digital eco-system, especially on the iGaming industry. All those big decisions that affected on iGaming industry were successful. Canadian iGaming space grows like never before as the Government gave them access to many technological advancements. From 2017 online casinos were granted by important decisions - offering a wide range of games. Players were able to play online casino games including poker, slots, and roulette without leaving the platform. Unlike other countries, Canada gave online casinos a chance to the developer and offer different types of games to players. From 2017 the government gave the green light to crypto revolution and casinos could attract bitcoin lovers to play and received payments through digital money. Those decisions changed the iGaming industry for good. Canadian experts believe that the government will be very flexible as they have success stories from the iGaming industry and now they can replicate same case to other business industries. 

Tech companies in Canada have to act fast

In the tech world in Canada, organization giants such as Lightspeed and Shopify chose to offer their employees an option to work remotely. Other companies are also providing work from home for teams in rotation.

Meanwhile, some businesses are taking more proactive decisions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Two startups based in Toronto experienced a close call with the virus, which forced them to make immediate precautionary decisions.

Top Hat held its annual conference with around 300 participants in New Orleans Marriott on March 5 to 7. The place held another meeting, the NICAR20, on another level around March 5 to 8. However, news broke late on Tuesday that one NICAR20 attendee plausibly tested positive of coronavirus.

After Top Hat learned of the possible exposure and the risks to its attendees, Silagadze said that Top Hat workers who were in the event would be working remotely within the 14-day quarantine period. Later, he extended the same work from home offer to all Top Hat employees who were anxious about going out to work at the company’s office.

Despite the pressure to cancel its annual event, Top Hat decided to continue with it. Meanwhile, a lot of other major tech firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, and Google have had to cancel their scheduled events in the last several weeks.

Companies joining the global initiative

The tech companies decided to do so as part of their global initiative to help limit the spread of the deadly virus. Shopify also canceled its yearly developer conference on February 28, even asking all its employees to work from home.

Ecobee also followed with the moves of major tech companies on Thursday, imposing a work-from-home policy to its employees.

However, remote work doesn't apply to every company, especially those in the service industry. It is the primary reason why other businesses are unable to make decisions about company-wide work closures. Lombard stated that not every worker in Ecobee could work from home. However, he said that the workers who can are encouraged to take remote work. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of disruption in Canada, as well as the entire world. Schools decided to close, and all public gatherings are now restricted. On Thursday, the government imposed a sweeping travel ban, forcing people to stay inside their homes. However, it has also caused the commerce industry to slow down as the number of coronavirus pandemic cases increases.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife are currently in self-isolation after Sophie Gregoire Trudeau tested positive of the virus. The PMO sent a statement saying that the two are feeling well but will continue to take the recommended quarantine precautions.

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