The Quinte West, Belleville and Prince Edward County chambers of commerce held a joint online event with Bay of Quinte MPP Todd Smith and Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction Prabmeet Sarkaria on Thursday.
The meeting gave local businesspeople a chance to have some of their COVID-19 and lockdown-related concerns addressed.
One of the questions posed to the ministers was around “why big box stores can open but smaller independent retailers cant”?
Smith says the main reason was advice from Chief Medical Officer of Health to keep people from visiting multiple stores in one day.
“That individual who has to go out for their Corn Flakes and milk in the morning, but may need a screwdriver, can pick that up in the same spot. I know there are so many people out there that want to support their local businesses as well, which is why we kept the curbside pick-up in place as well.”
The MPPs were also asked why Eastern Ontario can’t be treated more like Northern Ontario, with Smith saying that our proximity to heavy case number areas in the Greater Toronto Area is what makes it difficult to open up regionally right now.
Meanwhile, Sarkaria told the group that when it comes to developing further policies on how businesses can operate under the current conditions, the government is always looking for feedback.
“For example, a retail shop is going to be reopening in the local area, some of the mechanisms they’ve put forward. We’d be happy to take those and show the health table ‘here are some of the things businesses are doing, these are the protocols they’re taking forward and this is why we should allow them to open’. Even in some circumstances adopt those as standards across the province.”
The MPPs were also asked about getting more advanced notice of new restrictions and both gave a reminder that things tend to change quickly these days, but they would get the message across that more notice would make a big difference for business owners and their staffs.
You can listen to the full discussion here:
