THUNDER BAY - While the anticipated lifting of the lockdown and stay-at-order home next week is welcome news to businesses and ski hills, northern MPPs say the province should have had the proper resources in place to implement a regional approach to reopening earlier to help those struggling.
“I’ve always supported a regional approach to reopening but what is missing is the resources to make that happen,” said Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Judith Monteith-Farrell. “Where is the testing, where is the follow-up, where is the increased support for public health? If we had those things in place, we could have started opening up a lot sooner.”
The provincial government said it will lift the lockdown and stay-at-home order for a majority of the province on Feb. 16.
The lockdown was first put in place on Jan. 14 due to a surge in COVID-19 cases across the province, including Northwestern Ontario.
“I would have preferred to see the stay at home order lifted this week than waiting for next week,” said Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP Michael Gravelle. “I’m not quite sure why the premier an the cabinet waited for a week to do that. Certainly here in Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario, a week makes a huge difference, certainly to the ski hills.”
With the lifting of the stay-at-home order and the revised COVID-19 response framework, non-essential retail businesses will be permitted to reopen at a limited capacity of 25 per cent.
“We always had a problem with the approach of shutting down small businesses that can operate safely and allowing big box stores to remain open,” Monteith-Farrell said. “We are happy to see retail operations will be going on and we know many of them need that. Some can’t operate curbside.”
“Small business and retail, an extra week could have made a big difference,” Gravelle said.
“There’s no question that people have been really suffering under the lockdown. The stay-at-home order has been a tough one. It has been tough on people’s mental health and certainly tough on their physical health as well. I wonder why the premier did not decide to open this week.”
Ski hills across the province have been struggling and questioned why they were forced to close during the lockdown, Northwestern Ontario being the only region in the province to not permit ski hills to operate.
“It’s a much shorter season. If they can reopen soon and can get two more months, they can salvage their season,” Gravelle said. “That is one of the reasons I thought lifting the stay home order would have been a good thing for the ski hills to take advantage of the family day weekend.”
Monteith-Farrell criticized the provincial government for not offering enough resources to allow small businesses to remain open and preventing the economy from reopening sooner, as well as preventing future outbreaks across the province.
“I am going to be advocating that we have those proper things in place as soon as possible but it doesn’t seem to be in the governments plan,” she said. “I think it is the testing and access to rapid testing. Also the planning around monitoring and ensuring people have the resources to operate safely.”
