The St. John’s Board of Trade says it was encouraged by a recent meeting with Premier Andrew Furey and Minister Siobhan Coady.

Numerous topics were discussed during the meeting, including the impact of current traveler isolation requirements on businesses, and the possibility of financial aide.

CEO AnnMarie Boudreau says Furey and Coady understand the audiences impacted by the current restrictions, and they were happy to hear government’s focus on moving towards reopening as quickly as possible.

She says “times are really tough right now” and they will continue to advocate for a reopening when the time is right.

But, she does note that they did ask for some form of financial assistance to be reinstated.

She says the province has provided assistance before and they have asked if there is capacity for them to do so again.

She says government has committed to looking into it.