I thought we would be out of the covid woods by now. I never thought we would be still dealing with Stay-at-Home orders, shutdowns, travel restriction and business restrictions. Some provinces have weathered the covid storm well and others open and close. This is hard on any person and even harder for business owners. I cannot imagine how owners from Toronto and Peel region are coping. Hopefully, all the government subsidies, grants and low interest loans are helping.

Salons that have been allowed to open have seen sales down from 2019 but not as bad as everyone expected. Lotion sales continue to be strong when reopening. Clients are happy to see salons open. Governments have started to allow personal services to open except in areas with extremely high covid case numbers. Just before the Stay-at-Home came into effect in Ontario on March 26^th a press release came out allowing personal services to open in Grey Zones after April 12. Once this Stay-at-Home order is lifted this will allow salons in all regions to open in Ontario.

Vaccines are getting in to arms as fast as they come in. Whether you believe in the vaccines or not, governments believe in them. Herd immunity is what will allow businesses to open. The summer sun is on its way as well. Preliminary research is showing sunlight could help reduce the caseloads. I am not saying it going to stop covid in it tracks, just that it may slow transmission, as every graph showed in the summer of 2020. The second wave did not start until the fall. Even several chief medical officers admitted the slowdown in cases in the summer came from being outdoors.

Don’t forget May is Sunshine Month, follow Grassrootshealth.net blogs and don’t forget to share with everyone

The JCTA had 2 Zoom meeting in April, one for members and the other for all salons in Canada. It was an open discussion on the subsidies, grants, and other funding, how the JCTA works and how we can help. In both meetings the question was asked why tanning salons could not be considered an essential service. The biggest reason is governments do not consider sunbeds to be a therapeutic device. We are considered only as a tanning device and most provinces do not see us as having any therapeutic benefits, even those we could be considered a surrogate to sunlight. But again, there is still only preliminary research showing benefits for sunlight/vitamin D/nitric oxide. The one thing governments have seen is transmission in personal services is very low, therefore they have allowed personal service to be open when a complete shutdown is not ordered. The JCTA continues to meet/send emails with some provinces on how a tanning salon differs from other personal services, UV tanning is a non-contact service, tanning salons do not spend a lot of time with a client, and they go into a private room on their own to use the service. Also brought up was having a government toolkit to educate salon owners on how to meet their local politician. The JCTA has had a section on the website since dealing with under 18 tanning. This is open to members, but I would be more than happy to help any salon meet their local politicians. Be aware that most politicians want to see a strong association in any type of business. The reason is they see an association as a way to increase the professionalism of an industry. Most associations have professional standards that members must follow, and therefore the JCTA has its own set. There was also a discussion on who runs the JCTA: The JCTA is run by a board of 4 salon owners, 2 industry suppliers, educational director, and the president. The salon owners are made up of different backgrounds; this gives a diverse input on the industry in Canada. The only time the president needs to vote is when there is a tie. As you can see, the board is controlled by salon owners.

The JCTA, as mentioned in the last Canadian E News, was turning the marketing back on. As I have said in the past, this is all about driving consumers to member salons. The marketing program in March and April had over 5.5 million impressions and on average 1000 Canadians visited TanResponsibly.ca per day. Again, every page that get a visit shows the 3 closest salons near them. Based on the analytics, the majority of visits to the website are 18 to 34 and female, thanks mostly to Google ads. This has now been turned off until salons reopen again in some of the provinces. The JCTA will turn this back on in provinces that lift their health order to allow salons to open, driving more consumers to member salons.

How about saving some money? The JCTA insurance program has saved 100s of dollar for members. The JCTA is now hired a lady to call salons throughout Canada to introduce salon owners to the NEW JCTA Insurance program. It only takes about 5 minutes to fill out the application for a quote on the phone. You do not have to be a member to get a quote. If you would like a quote, please send an email to info@TanCanada.org and let me know what the best number is to get you at. The coverage can be even better than what you may be getting right now. Or you can go online and take 15 minutes out of your busy day and get a quote. You should always compare prices and what coverage you are getting for that price.

The JCTA is here to help, whether you want great insurance, need help understanding the subsidies and grants, just need to talk to someone that understands what you are going through, or you just need a sounding board.

As part of the JCTA Professional Standards, I would like to thank all the members that support these Standards and makes sure all their staff are Smart Tan Certified. This is what grows our industry and shows governments we protect our clients.

Steve Gilroy

JCTA Executive Director