| To Our Valued Clients,
In recent weeks, we’ve seen the human and economic effects of COVID-19 — but we’ve also seen the best of each other. We see it in our doctors, nurses, and first responders who are on the front lines helping people directly affected by this situation. And we see it in grocery store clerks, sanitation workers and good neighbors, who are helping to keep us all moving forward. Thank you to everyone for doing their part to get us through this challenging time. We at Garrett Group just wanted to reach out to each of you and thank you for your ongoing business. We are currently all facing a very difficult period that could affect many of our businesses for the next 3 to 6 months in a significant way. Therefore, we have gone remote as of last week in order to do our part in social distancing ourselves; all of us are now working and interacting virtually. We are committed to doing our part for our global community, while still being here for one another, especially for you our valued client. After all, we are all connected. The Chambers Plan, with its core mantra to support local members of Chambers and Boards, has worked extremely hard to arm their advisors with some tools to help you through this difficult time. Since each and every one of you will have your own individual needs and situations at this time, we believe the best way for us to provide assistance if you need it, is through direct contact with your advisor. The Chambers Plan is providing more flexibility such as waiving waiting periods for short term disability claims, revised payment options and allowing certain benefit changes we wouldn’t normally be able to do during plan year to ease premium concerns. They have also added some exceptions to allow any employees laid off due to COVID-19 to be later reinstated without underwriting to their previous levels of coverage. For firms laying off staff due to COVID-19 there are also provisions to keep their health and dental coverage in place provided premiums are paid. If you need help and would like to discuss your individual situation, please let us know and we will walk you through what we can do to help. Please also go to this link for up to date COVID-19 resources from the Johnston Group and the Chambers Plan. https://johnstongroup.ca/covid-19/ In addition, your plan has both the Business Assistance Service (BAS) and the Healthy Business Bookmark included at no cost to you. Please consider calling BAS if you need clarifications on your obligations as an employer during this difficult time. Most importantly, we want to reiterate that you know that we are here for you. Feel free to reach out at any time and we will get back to you within the business day. We can be reach via email; jeremy@garrettgroup.ca ; jim@garrettgroup.ca ; b.burns@garrettgroup.ca Video conferencing can be arranged if needed. Our phone contacts are Jeremy at 905-468-8575 or 905-328-6789 or Jim at 905-328-6788 Best Regards Jim Garrett President Garrett Group Ltd. | www.garrettgroup.ca 509 Glendale Ave. E, suite 205 | N.O.T.L., ON | L0S 1J0 p. 905.468.8575 | f. 905.684.9375 |
