Mix of relief, disappointment over tweaked COVID rules

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This article was published 22/05/2021 (1622 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s business community breathed a collective sigh of relief when the province announced it would only tweak COVID-19 restrictions temporarily this long weekend.

“We’ve been told repeatedly cases aren’t coming directly from storefronts and retailers,” said Chuck Davidson, president of the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce, on Friday. “And at this point, I don’t think there’s very many restrictions left to impose on businesses other than closing down everything entirely.”

Public-health officials announced a record-setting 603 COVID-19 cases Thursday, the same day the province said only one person per household will be allowed to enter any business starting today and at least until Wednesday.

On Friday, Manitoba saw another 594 new COVID-19 cases and three more deaths.

“We need to reduce the amount of contacts we have outside our household. It’s all up to us,” said chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin, announcing the upcoming measures. “We know what to do. We’ve done it before.”

Neither Roussin nor Heather Stefanson, Manitoba’s health minister, provided details at a news conference Thursday about whether provincial enforcement will be extended to support businesses in order to follow the new rules.

Retailers have repeatedly told the Free Press in previous interviews that all they can do is ask people to follow pandemic measures politely. The onus for getting ticketed should not be on them if pandemic measures are contravened by customers, business owners have said.

In a statement, a provincial spokeswoman said Friday, “Enforcement officials are aware of the new public-health orders and will enforce as part of their regular duties. These orders are some of the strongest in Canada, and Manitobans are reminded that following them will help to bring case counts down.”

Dr. Roussin said Thursday that Manitobans are urged to purchase essential items only, but did not limit the sale of non-essential items under public-health orders, as was done during the second wave of the pandemic last fall. A provincial spokeswoman said Friday that’s because “best practices are to use the least restrictive measures possible.”

John Graham, Prairies director of government relations at the Retail Council of Canada, said the new measures are “only an addition to what’s already being followed by the bulk of businesses and customers across the province.”

Jonathan Alward, Manitoba director of the Canadian Federation for Independent Business, said “despite how little changed these rules may be, when the province tells people they shouldn’t be going out to shop unless absolutely necessary, they need to acknowledge how that will continue to hit businesses financially — who are already in a very dire position at current capacity limits of 10 per cent or closed altogether.”

Alward said he’s disappointed the province did not extend emergency support for retailers.

“At the end of the day, I’m obviously happy we’re finally following the science with the new measures and not restricting businesses more than they already are,” said Davidson. “Certainly though, what is concerning is that we’re still blanketing the whole province’s businesses with these measures, when there are only cases soaring in certain communities and barely occurring in others.”

 

temur.durrani@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @temurdur