By John Zehr
Zehr Insurance Brokers Limited.
To our Customers and Staff
End of 2020 Message from Zehr Insurance Brokers
December 22, 2020
As we approach the close of this calendar year, I often reflect upon the end of February 2020. Why? For the Thursday and Friday of that month end, I participated in a special downhill ski event in Ontario’s ski country. We had received a whopping 85 cm of snow over the course of 24 – 30 hours. It made skiing nothing like we generally experience here-waist deep snow. If you like snow, it was so much fun. Little did I realize then that in a matter of days the whole world as I knew it was about to change-a big time change.
March brought a new way of life – Covid-19? So, what was that and what did it matter to us in Canada? This was reported to be in China. Well, we all know the continuation of the story all too well.
For many individuals, families, businesses and industries, the effects of the modern times Pandemic has been horrific. Yet, Canada and the world in many instances have met the challenge and done very well considering all factors. If someone had described what we collectively have been through so far, how we adapted and how we continue to adapt I suspect the story line would be unbelievable, rather fictional. So many Canadians have been through very challenging times before as history records. But the majority of our citizens today have not experienced anything like it. Yet, resiliency and resourceful adaptation have led the charge. On the eve of the largest vaccination undertaking in Canada’s history, we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
Like many businesses, at Zehr Insurance Brokers we were considered an essential service and during the lockdowns were not ordered to close our doors; however, we were able to adapt. To protect our customers and our employees we did move to close our offices, but we did not shut down our operations. We continued to provide stability in our services of what is supposed to be stability for unforeseen disasters that our customers and the public look to insurance for. We deployed most of our staff to home offices, developed new safety protocols and built physical protection barriers in our offices so eventually some staff could return to the workplace if they wished. Today, we respond to daily updates as we take our lead from the various public health authorities in the various communities where we have offices. December 26 brings yet again Province wide lock down measures. Collectively I am confident we will migrate through this next phase as we have so far.
In many cases, our insurance partners and insurance companies have stepped forward to be part of general goodwill solutions too. At Zehr Insurance, we have worked to bring relief to struggling families and business with leniency granted in many circumstances of hardship. These measures which we collectively made along with our staff make me proud to be part of this unprecedented movement of the greater good. But be sure I am not boasting here to make us sound like we alone are some sort of white knight. I tip my hat and give much more thanks to the thousands of front line, emergency response and health care workers who day after day put themselves and their families at risk to help their fellow Canadians with Covid-19 and all its challenges.
I want to thank all of the customers of Zehr Insurance Brokers. Your patience and loyalty through these challenging times is really appreciated by our team who are doing their utmost to be as helpful as possible when our you need them most.
Finally, a thank you goes to all the employees of Zehr Insurance. It is because of everyone’s loyalty and ability to adapt to our new work environment that we will be here when we get through the Pandemic of 2020, a year I am sure many of us would much rather move on from.
I wish everyone best wishes and our complements of the season. Be safe and be healthy.
John Zehr, CIP., CCIB., CRM
President – Zehr Insurance Brokers Limited.
