Ottawa businesses relieved to see lockdown measures end Saturday

Ottawa businesses are relieved to see the Ontario government lift lockdown measures affectingindoor 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.

Carriercalled the reopening "a lifeline."

• Ottawa restaurants, gyms can reopen this weekend
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Ottawa business association welcomes reopening, even with restrictions

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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.

At the same time, the province has introducedthe 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 beginson 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.

Some businesses may struggle

Russo,who owns the bar Brass Monkey, saidthe 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 isalso 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 fromEtches to Mayor Jim Watson made public on Tuesday, one of her recommendations, for instance, includeda mandate for restaurant customers to wear masks while communicating to service staffand wearing masksat all times in gyms.