Small business owners are calling on provincial governments to come forward with a plan that will help them stay open throughout the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses has sent an open letter to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his fellow provincial counterparts asking them to commit to a “stay open strategy” that will include several measures that can be taken to avoid further lockdowns.
The strategy stops short of making vaccination a requirement to access non-essential businesses and services as is the case in Quebec but it does allude to the possibility of doing so for large events.
It also calls on governments to focus on hospitalization rates rather than cases when evaluating the need for additional restrictions and to provide “clear, evidence-based communications around risks and any decisions leading to additional restrictions.”
“Ontario has been by far the most lockdown-happy province, and as a result businesses like indoor fitness and gyms, indoor dining restaurants, and event venues have lost more than a year to lockdowns since the pandemic started,” Ryan Mallough, who is CFIB’s senior director of provincial affairs for Ontario, said in a press release. “We can’t go back to that in the fall – small businesses need to know that they will be allowed to remain open going forward.”
The CFIB says that 79 per cent of the businesses that responded to a recent poll are concerned that their operations could be impacted by additional lockdowns in the fall.
They say that 87 per cent of businesses, meanwhile, want their provincial governments to adopt a “stay open” strategy that will include measures that can be taken to avoid another lockdown.
“Provincial governments have the opportunity to reassure businesses that lockdowns are an extraordinary measure that will only be used now as a last resort by announcing a clear policy that keeping things open is a priority,” CFIB Executive Vice-President Laura Jones said in the release.
COVID-19 transmission has been on the rise in Ontario for weeks now and provincial health officials have said that cases are now doubling every 10 to 14 days.
