Canadian innovation hubs close doors to help prevent the spread of COVID-19
Innovation hubs, incubators, and accelerators across Canada are shutting down or instituting work from home policies, to help curb the spread of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak.
Four Ontario hubs, Invest Ottawa, MaRS Discovery District, Communitech, and OneEleven, as well as Atlantic Canada incubator Volta, are among those that have imposed restrictions on their physical office spaces in recent days.
“Our priority is to keep everyone safe and do everything possible to avoid adding to the burden.”
In its latest response to the COVID-19 developments, Kitchener-Waterloo-based Communitech has closed its facilities to the general public and instructed staff to work from home. Communitech employees at both the Communitech Hub in Kitchener and the Communitech Data Hub in Waterloo will work from home until April 6, the hub said in a statement.
Communitech’s main location in Kitchener houses a number of startups, community spaces, and a corporate innovation lab. The Communitech Data Hub is a 19,000 plus square foot collaborative space.
On Thursday, Communitech announced a number of measures, including the cancellation of public tours for 90 days through June 10 and the suspension of all in-person events, workshops, and peer-group meet-ups. Last week it also cancelled its True North Festival.
“We are being, and will continue to be, proactive and aligned with emerging best practices in the community,” said Communitech CEO and president Iain Klugman. “Our priority is to keep everyone safe and do everything possible to avoid adding to the burden of the province’s health-care workers.”
Toronto-based MaRS has decided to move all venture support online as MaRS moves to a work from home policy until at least April 3 in order to “protect team members, tenants and the community during the outbreak.” MaRS is also moving to “a fully digital advisory model” and is moving community events online.
“Despite the challenge, we are not easing up efforts to support our ecosystem,” said Jon Dogterom, senior vice president of venture services at MaRS. “Such a global problem requires a global solution. Canada’s tech community is galvanized, and many ventures are shifting their everyday business pursuits in hopes of bringing this crisis to a decisive end. I’m inspired by how rapidly our entrepreneurs have reacted to the crisis.”
Invest Ottawa is adopting a “broad work-from-home approach” for its employees and plans to deliver its services and support online “to the greatest degree possible.” The hub is also moving to kiosk-based reception and is operating with a “significantly reduced” onsite team.
“Given our extensive regional engagement and activity, we know it is imperative to get ahead of this evolving situation and help slow the spread of this virus,” Invest Ottawa wrote in a statement.”
RELATED: Maple to launch COVID-19 screening for Ontario residents, free virtual clinic platform for doctors
Incubators like Toronto-based OneEleven, which physically houses 55 companies with more than 1,000 employees, said its staff will be working from home as of Friday. The facility itself will remain open to “ensure staff who would like to work within the space can do so.” OneEleven noted in a blog post, however, that many of its companies have implemented work from home policies.
“The health and safety of our community is our top priority, and we’re doing our part to help minimize the impact of COVID-19 at an individual and societal level,” OneEleven wrote in a tweet.
Other innovation hubs across Canada are also taking precautions, including Halifax-based Volta, which is closing its co-working space between March 16 to March 22, and Startup Calgary, which has cancelled events and programming through to mid-July (Startup Calgary’s full list can be found here).
Saskatchewan tech incubator Co.Labs told BetaKit that its facility is currently at 25 percent occupancy with many founders and staff working remotely. The incubator has also cancelled community events taking place in March and April and is considering postponing is Co.Launch Finale Event, Co.Learn Scholarship Program, and Ladies in Tech Event set to take place in May and June, respectively.
BetaKit will be updating this story with more details about innovation hubs across Canada as things progress and change.
Image courtesy Communitech