Local business leaders say pandemic rules creating chaos

Cathy Dobson Constantly changing pandemic protocols are playing havoc with the budgets and mental health of the local restaurant sector, Sarnia-Lambton business leaders say.

Cathy Dobson

Constantly changing pandemic protocols are playing havoc with the budgets and mental health of the local restaurant sector, Sarnia-Lambton business leaders say.

“It’s disappointing, it’s frustrating and it’s contributing to incredible stress,” Allan Calvert, Chamber of Commerce CEO, said Tuesday, one day after Ontario’s reopening strategy downgraded Sarnia-Lambton from orange to a more stringent red status.

Dr. Sudit Ranade, Lambton’s medical officer of health, has said tightening of the rules was necessary because the weekly COVID-19 incidence rate of 60 cases per 100,000 people is well above the threshold of 40 that would allow the community to remain at orange status.

Ranade had hinted earlier that a colour change was possible, but not before local restaurant owners placed food and beverage orders based on the orange level, which allows up to 50 people in a restaurant at one time last week.

The downgrade to “red” status on Monday reduced that number to 10 diners.

Many restaurant workers had their shifts abruptly cancelled this week, and a lot of fresh food already delivered may need to be thrown out, Calvert said.

“All small business is suffering, but the restaurant sector is uber-sensitive to these changes,” he said.

“It’s not so much that they are angry. A lot of them feel like this could be the end for them.”

Calvert said his phone “blew up” over the weekend when Chamber members realized Sarnia-Lambton’s post lockdown orange status would last only one week.

“I went to talk to a restaurant owner and the guy hugged me and he started crying,” he said.

“He said he’d just bought cases of cheese and lettuce and vegetables on credit and had no money to pay for this stuff.”

Calvert said Ontario needs to review its pandemic protocols.

“It’s not these business people who are spreading the virus. They know the rules and they are following them because they have bills to pay.

“It’s the people having big parties and not following protocols that are making others sick.”

Calvert is part of the Sarnia-Lambton COVID-19 Business and Economic Taskforce, which quickly issued a plea to the Ontario government and Lambton Public Health to change its strategy in three specific areas:

1 – Provide a minimum of two weeks before making changes in status to allow businesses to adjust inventory and employee schedules;

2 – Provide longer-range framework projections to improve businesses’ ability to plan and respond; and

3 – Determine restaurant capacity based on a percentage of space, not on “arbitrary fixed numbers.”

Restaurants built to accommodate 200 patrons, for example, are not viable with the 10-patron maximum that red status dictates, the taskforce said.

Calvert, who hosted a townhall-style Zoom meeting for business owners and community leaders Tuesday, encouraged residents to eat out and order in meals this week to help support local restaurants.

“Otherwise, they’ll be throwing out all those perishables,” he said.