Northern Ontario businesses frustrated as lockdown continues for at least another week

COVID-19 cost Sarah Bennett and Ashley Breault their jobs, so they decided to open their own business.

They renovated a building in downtown New Liskeard and aimed to open The Beauty Bar Salonand Spain the fall.

Then it was Christmas. Then it was this week, as media reports suggested Temiskaming was going to be one of the few Ontario regions to emerge from the current lockdown on Wednesday.

But Temiskaming was dropped from the list when a possible case of one of the highly contagious COVID variants was detected in the area.

"It is a crazy time to take all of this on, but the opportunity just presented itself," says Bennett.

So now the two partners haveto wait at least another week to welcome her first paying customers.

"It's been obviously very stressful getting into a big renovation and not being able to be open," Bennettsays.

"There's always that hanging over us and that uncertainty, but we're sort of used to that now. We're sort of in that zone."

Across the street, Penny Durant's shopis one of the only lighted windows in downtown New Liskeard.

The owner of the Pantry Bulk Food Store and The Market Eatery can welcome two customers at a time during this lockdown, but was looking forward to some of her neighbours re-opening and driving more business her way.

"I look at closed signs and closed signs and closed signs. It's just very frustrating to be on the edge and just not be able to take that step," says Durant.

She says she's frustrated by the province's decision and that one possible variant case could have such a big impact, but she says she can't fault the government's approach.

"I'm on all of the fences," says Durant.

"I could have handled a 28-day lockdown where I went home and I made no money, no problem. It's the 18 months of hobbling that is what is going to put us down. Of not quite being able to make it, or just barely paying the bills. Like if we're going to have a lockdown, lock it down."

Matthew Johnson, the co-owner of Poor Boy Soles Bepoke Shoes in Cobalt, is critical of the province's handling of the pandemic, doubting that themoves of the "rudderless" leadership isgoing to actually protect people.

He also wonders how much longer his two-year-old storecan survive.

"My business itself is down probably about 45 per cent year over year," says Johnson.

"We're playing with money that we pay our bills with, not knowing if we're going to be able to bring in the revenue needed to continue."

Three regions in the southeast are set to begin re-opening on Wednesday. Toronto, Peel and York are scheduled to emerge from lockdown Feb. 22 and the rest of the province, including the north, are setfor Feb. 16.

But how much of the north is able to re-openwill depend on how much the virus and most importantly itsvariants spread over the coming days.

"We feel as though we've 'done better' than everywhere else, but in truth it really doesn't take much in our smaller communities for things to rapidly escalate," says Dr. Lucas Castellani, an infectious disease specialist at the Sault Ste. Marie hospital.

"You know timing is always the question and I think there'll be some folks that'll think it's still too early to start opening things up a bit and there's always those folks who think we haven't been open enough."