Businesses reopening are being reminded to do so carefully and safely.

Stage One of the province’s plan to restart the economy got underway on Thursday with many across the RMWB jumping at the occassion to once again welcome customers.

Kevin Weidlich, President and CEO of the Wood Buffalo Economic Development Corporation, is encouraging businesses to open when they can safely do so.

“We want businesses to be careful and to pay attention to what the guidelines are and to think and do it thoughtfully.

Despite the economy getting restarted, COVID-19 is still alive in well across the province.

In the RMWB, there are two active cases – one in Fort McMurray and one in the Chipewyan Prairie First Nation.

The province says they will be monitoring the number of new cases, hospital stays, and ICU visits to determine whether they need to pull back on their economic plan.

“We trust our businesses to determine when it’s best for them, their employees, and their customers to safely reopen,” added Weidlich.

Meanwhile, the WBEDC, along with the Fort McMurray Chamber of Commerce, Community Futures Wood Buffalo, the Fort McMurray Construction Association, and the Northeastern Alberta Aboriginal Business Association, are launching an business support portal.

WBCentral.biz is aimed to be a one-stop location where businesses dealing with the impacts of COVID-19, the downturn in the economy, and flood can get information on recovery resources.

Weidlich notes the Recovery Task Force, which was created to help businesses deal with the aftermath of the virus, received a lot of feedback about setting up this portal.

“Many of them expressed the concern of how do we do this, how do we do this well – that’s why we launched that, that polls and curates information that comes from the feds and the province.”

Along with updates from all levels of government, updates from the Task Force will also be posted.