Indigo Books & Music Inc. founder and chief executive officer Heather Reisman said it may not be until after Christmas that businesses could finally bounce back to normal after nearly shutting down due to COVID-19.

“We can’t anticipate that the day we open, business just bounces back to normal,” Reisman said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg on Wednesday.

“I’ve been heading up a group of many retailers to understand the full impact [of COVID-19] and we anticipate that  ... it will be post-Christmas before business comes anywhere near back to normal.”

The Canadian bookstore chain announced Monday that 545 salaried retail employees would return to work after Canadian lawmakers passed a $73-billion emergency aid measure that offers a 75 per cent wage subsidy to eligible employers. 

This move comes shortly after Indigo temporarily laid-off 5,200 of its retail employees last month in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reisman said the government should extend the June deadline for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and that lawmakers need to continue providing aid to businesses in order to help ease the financial blow on non-essential retailers. 

“When you think about businesses that will be severely impacted for months, you’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars [of losses],” Reisman said. ​

She noted that retailers, which account for more than one million jobs in the country, also contribute significantly to property taxes collected by cities as well as ​funds given to suppliers and marketing agencies. 

"We're really brought to our knees on this," she said.