Business owners brace for a maskless Manitoba
Some say masks will remain even after pandemic restrictions ease
A number of Winnipeg businesses plan to go above and beyond public health orders as the rules ease up on Saturday.
Retail stores, hair salons and fitness centres are no longer subject to any pandemic restrictions, masks are no longer required in indoor public places and restaurants and movie theatres no longer need to check the vaccination status of any customers.
Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial public health officer, has said the COVID-19 case counts, test positivity rates and hospitalizations have receded to the point where it is safe to further ease restrictions.
Epidemiologists and infectious disease experts have countered, saying Manitoba should retain the indoor mask mandate until the more contagious delta variant becomes the dominant strain of the virus that causes COVID-19 in this province — and public health has a better idea of how bad a fourth wave could become.
Some Winnipeg business owners say they will continue to require customers to wear masks indoors, partly because of the public health benefit and partly because customers and staff say they don't want masks to go.
"Many of our clients that we've talked to do not feel comfortable coming in without masks at this at this point in the game. We support that and we feel the same," said Charles Garinger, co-owner of Hive Hair Co. in Osborne Village.
The proximity between customers and workers in hair salons would be a concern without masks, he said.
"There's inevitably going to be some kind of fourth wave coming and we don't want to be part of the problem."
WATCH | Manitoba's mask mandate lifts on Saturday:
The potential for a fourth wave, which is expected to primarily impact unvaccinated Manitobans, has led One Family Fitness in St. Vital to continue requiring customers to wear masks.
The gym is also operating at 50 per cent capacity and keeping distancing in place even though it will not be required to do so, owner Dino Camire said.
"A lot of our members feel like it's just really not the time to be, you know, letting loose and kind of going back to normal," he said.
"We kind of want to take a phased approach. So we're going to keep the masks, stay at 50 per cent, reduce the distancing requirement down to two metres and just kind of take it from there and see how it goes."
Restaurants still face some limitations, as customers are restricted to their tables.
Ruby West in Wolseley, however, will continue requiring the use of masks when customers are not seated indoors, co-owner Rachael King said.
"We're going to stay the course and we're going to continue to put in the precautions and protocols that we've had in place for months that have served us well," she said.
Garinger, Camire and King expressed concerns the province is effectively downloading the responsibility to enforce pandemic safety on to businesses.
Damian Penner, the owner of Rocco's Pizza in Steinbach, said this downloading also occurred when restaurants were required to check the vaccination status of indoor diners from different households.
He decided to keep his restaurant closed as a result. It will reopen now that masks are no longer required, he said.
"Tensions and stress have been high over this last year and a half and understandably so, and when you start going into situations that could potentially be confrontational, we wanted to avoid that at all costs," Penner said.
The new public health order is scheduled to expire on Sept. 7.