Sioux Narrows, Ont., restaurant opens as sign of desperation during provincial lockdown

Just over a week ago, Andrew Nisly thought he could save his restaurant from going under.

He defied a provincial order and opened the dining room of The Neighbourhood Eatery, a small restaurant in Sioux Narrows, Ont., about 75 km south of Kenora.

For the few days he stayed open, he was making enough money to at least pay some bills. Snowmobilers travelling through the area would stop and have lunch, which was more than he was able to do when only offering take-out.

"Absolutely, absolutely no doubt. I don't hesitate to answer that," Nisly said, referring to the dining room allowing him to make it through the winter months.

"For January, February and March, there's an incredible amount of traffic, especially this year when people aren't travelling and doing other things, where everyone's getting on their sleds."

"But, they need a spot if they're doing to sit down somewhere and eat, where they can warm up, take their gear off and sit for half an hour or 45 minutes. And we feel like we can very safely provide that for people."

Nisly posted on Facebook, as a move of desperation, that he would re-open the restaurant.

It took the OPP just a few days to go to the restaurant and tell him he would have to close.

Nisly complied with the order from police, knowing that if he did not, he would be fined and would lose his business anyway.

"It's not political. I'm losing my businesses, and we're losing them at the end of the month. We're going out of business January 30th. It if was strictly political, if it wasn't survival, I would have taken a different approach to my post."

"I wasn't calling on people to come and have an anti-covid or anti-mask, whatever, or party in my restaurant. I specifically asked people not to do that, and it was simply opening my dining room out of necessity at being able to continue business through 2021."

Nisly said when the province announced his first lockdown in April, he shuttered his dining area, knowing it could help stop the transmission with COVID-19. But, he said, the province continued to lump northern and southern Ontario together, which was the "death sentence" for his business.

"I find it incredibly disheartening that the province announced a regional approach to this last year, and completely abandoned it with their decision to lockdown the entire province," he said.

Nisly said he blames the province for its decision-making.

"We're now going to see two small businesses close, and it's equal to the number of active cases in the [Kenora] region."