SYDNEY, N.S. — The executive board chair for the Cosmetology Association of Nova Scotia says he's frustrated with the lack of information the provincial government is providing in terms of guidelines for its members.
Cameron DeBaie tells the Cape Breton Post the association wants direction from the government in order to help its members prepare for their businesses to reopen in the near future.
“There’s now the push from our members for information,” said DeBaie. “It’s been hard because we’re a very diverse industry and we have people who are working in big salons, home salons, mobile salons and we’ve really been trying to find that common ground for every person.”
Earlier this month, the association filed a nine-page document with potential guidelines for approval by the provincial government. The association hoped to hear back from the government last week, but that wasn’t the case.
“We can’t even release our document to our members for fear that people will start implementing things,” said DeBaie. “In the global world, people are getting information from Britain and Georgia, everywhere but Nova Scotia, so it’s frustrating.”
The association was scheduled to have a phone interview with Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, Tuesday afternoon, but DeBaie didn’t believe any guidelines would be approved during the call.
“We expect it will be a gradual back-and-forth, we just really want to know if our document is good and can be released to our members,” said DeBaie.
“The conversations need to be happening and we wish they would have happened a week ago, at least to acknowledge that we’re on the right track – we know there’s revisions, but we want the ball rolling as soon as possible.”
The Cosmetology Association of Nova Scotia has close to 10,000 members across the province and represent almost 2,000 salons and spas. Businesses have been closed since March because of COVID-19 and restrictions put forth by the province.
“It’s a very competitive market,” said DeBaie. “You can become irrelevant in a month, and the way this new post-pandemic can go, if people aren’t ready to open when the world is ready for them, we could see a drastic drop in some salons.”
As of now, no timeline or guidelines have been set for the reopening process.
“We still don’t know which phase we would fall under,” said DeBaie, Tuesday morning. “There’s no indication whether it would be Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and we get nervous where the government is looking at 28-day periods between phases.
“It might be August before estheticians can open and that’s dangerous for small businesses, we’re fearful it could be a huge blow to the industry in Nova Scotia.”
When it comes to funding support, the provincial government says cosmetologists and hairdressers should look at federal and provincial programs already in place to see if they qualify. Provincial programs for small businesses can be found at www.novascotia.ca/coronavirus.
