A local small business owner and former Belleville councillor, who has been vocal about the lack of fairness in how COVID-19 restrictions are being applied, says “it’s disappointing to have to fall back into this again”.
Tom Lafferty spoke to Quinte News following the announcement that Ontario will go into a province-wide lockdown on Boxing Day, for a four week period.
Lafferty says he understands why the measures are being put in place and he does support them in the name of health and safety, but thinks things could be handled a bit differently so small businesses aren’t impacted as much.
“Small businesses are responsible for .1% of COVID cases, which is basically nothing. So why not let the little store open, reduce the number of people that can be inside to a percentage per square foot, reduce it to half and there are no issues. We’re very careful, we’re able to sanitize constantly and everything is looked after.”
Lafferty says if big box stores that sold essential items as well as other goods had to close off the non-essential sections of their stores, that would make things a bit more fair.
“I would support that 100%. It’s just unfair, the balance now. They can sell shirts and I can’t, they can sell pants and I can’t. It’s just not fair the way this is being done.”
MPP Todd Smith has pointed out that those rules likely won’t be placed on big box stores, but now that our area will be going into a lockdown, small businesses will at least be able to apply for various government support programs that they weren’t eligible for before.
