Northeastern Ontario educators, business owners get ready for new COVID-19 restrictions

Business owners, educators and parents across the northeast say they understand but are frustrated that further restrictions are now being put in place, in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 across the province.

On Monday, Premier Doug Ford was joined by several cabinet ministers to announce that schools will move online for at least two weeks.

In addition, gyms, restaurants and cinemas will close. Non-urgent surgeries and procedures are paused.

Schools were scheduled to open to in-person learning on Wednesday. Ford said the decision to close schools until Jan. 17 was taken because the province couldn't guarantee schools would be fully staffed with so many teachers expected to be off sick. 

In Sudbury, Christa Morel has three children under the age of five who all have severe autism.

"I'm glad they're going to be safe because my kids don't wear masks so I'm really afraid of them catching something," she said. "It's going to be a lot of their education on me for the next two weeks."

She said with such short notice, her family is unable to hire a respite worker to assist. When her children are in school, she said they each have their own education assistant.

"I have to become three people if I'm going to try and educate them," she said. "I was hoping it would be behind us, but we're willing to hunker down if it keeps everyone safe."

The Ontario government has said school boards will use the time to better prepare for a safe return to classes. But Darrell Czop, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association president for Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma, said he is skeptical that will happen.

"What they're looking at doing now, probably should have taken place two years ago when this pandemic was first introduced," he said. 

"The physical distancing has never been put in place in our schools. It's impossible with the class sizes. There's always room for improvement on ventilation."

Lesleigh Dye is the education director of District School Board Ontario North East, which runs English public schools in Timmins, Temiskaming Shores, Kirkland Lake and surrounding areas. 

"We know that for some learners, this is not ideal mode of delivery and we certainly know that it's incredibly important to have our students in our schools for in-person learning when it's safe to do so," she said. 

"With our COVID numbers, it is safer for everyone to be in their homes learning virtually."

'Dialing backwards'

Movie theatres and gyms are also on the list of businesses that will temporarily close on Wednesday.

"Partly shock and partly relief," Beth Mairs, the acting executive director and lead programer at the Sudbury Indie Cinema said, responding to the announcement.

"Personally, I believe that there were numerous missteps with the Ontario government's strategy over the fall which contributed in a large way to the situation that we have now."

Mairs said looking back, she wishes the government had shut down cinemas before the holiday season on Dec. 19 when it was announced movie theatres could not sell concessions.

"We were certainly dialling backwards financially to only have ticket sales when so few people were coming to the cinema," she said.

'Big hit for us'

The owner of Apex Warrior Gym in Sudbury said the timing of the announcement is bad, as many new people had started signing up in anticipation of getting fit in the new year.

"Everybody's been really looking forward to getting started in the new year with their fitness goals," Dennis Legault said.

"This is kind of a big hit for us."

He said overall, it's a frustrating situation.

"It's tough, right, because I know right away our memberships are going to drop, our kids' classes are going to stop and it's going to be a struggle," he said.

"Every time this happens we go to online classes and … we do whatever we can to help our members out. But it's getting harder every time, mentally, it's a real challenge."

Michelle Munro, the owner and operator of Round Two Fitness, said she doesn't understand the latest announcement by the province.

"It just doesn't make sense that we can have 500 people in Costco and not have five or 10 in a gym setting," she said.

"Especially a small, boutique style fitness facility."

She said like other fitness studios, she's getting ready to start online training again.

"As much as it's frustrating and doesn't make sense, from a business side. My virtual platform has grown from three people from when we were first locked down to over 50 people now," she said.

"I'm really thankful that I put the time and effort into developing that."