Ottawa businesses relieved to see lockdown measures end Saturday

Amanda Pfeffer | CBC News | Posted: November 4, 2020 12:15 AM | Last Updated: November 4, 2020

Businesses open but under different rules as part of Ontario's new COVID-19 plan

Image | Customers on the patio of Metropolitain Brasserie Restaurant

Caption: Customers on the patio of Metropolitain Brasserie Restaurant. Ottawa restaurant owners say they're relieved to know they can reopen indoor dining Nov. 7. (Jean Delisle/CBC)

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Ottawa businesses are relieved to see the Ontario government lift lockdown measures affecting indoor dining, bars, gyms and other entertainment venues.

On Tuesday, Premier Doug Ford announced an end to lockdown measures in Ontario hot spots by Saturday. Only Toronto will remain under the modified Stage 2 measures.

"It gives businesses a viable chance, a chance to cover costs and at least stay alive through this pandemic," said Nathalie Carrier, executive director of the Quartier Vanier Business Improvement Area.

Carrier called the reopening "a lifeline."

Media Video | CBC News Ottawa : Ottawa business association welcomes reopening, even with restrictions

Caption: Nathalie Carrier, executive director of the Vanier BIA, says allowing Ottawa businesses to reopen will serve “as a lifeline” for many small enterprises, even with restrictions on capacity.

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At the same time, the province has introduced the new COVID-19 Response Framework which features colour-coded stages, with clear criteria for how decisions are made when regions move from one stage to another, as well as rules that get increasingly more strict at each stage.

"We're happy to hear that we are now looking at a more long-term approach to the pandemic," said Carrier. "The short-term fixes we know don't work."

Carrier said businesses have been working together with public health officials to develop the new guidelines, though she knows some of the restrictions will be more difficult for certain members.

Ottawa enters orange stage

Ottawa begins on Saturday in the orange stage, which means indoor dining, gyms, and bars are able to reopen but under a new set of restrictions, for example:

Indoor restaurant dining is limited to four people per table.
Liquor can not be served after 9 p.m.
There is a 50-person capacity limit.
Gym patrons must now be three metres apart.
Gym time limit set at 60 minutes.

"It's a good start," said Scott Russo with the business association created during the pandemic called Open Safely Ottawa.

Image | The new Ontario COVID19 Response Framework

Caption: The new Ontario COVID-19 Response Framework includes new restrictions on restaurants and bars as they move from stage to stage. (courtesy of the Ontario Government)

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Some businesses may struggle

Russo, who owns the bar Brass Monkey, said the limit to 50 customers is "better than being closed."

"But it's going to be hard for some restaurants and bars to make money," he said with some venues paying rent on spaces that can handle 450 or more clients.

Russo is also concerned about the decision to shut off liquor sales at 9 p.m., since that's around the same time his bar usually picks up.

The provincial Health Protection and Promotion Act (HPPA) gives a local medical officer of health the ability to introduce stricter measures to meet the health needs of the local community.

Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa's medical officer of health, has been meeting with business groups to develop some made-in-Ottawa measures that go beyond the provincial rules.

In a letter from Etches to Mayor Jim Watson made public on Tuesday, one of her recommendations, for instance, included a mandate for restaurant customers to wear masks while communicating to service staff and wearing masks at all times in gyms.