New COVID-19 rules spark frustration for Windsor-Essex businesses

Windsorsalon owner Ettore Bonatosays he's still frustrated over the restrictions in place for small businesses and is doing everything he can just to survive.

"I'm cleaner than the doctor's office," Bonato told CBC News Wednesday.

"It's just amazing to me because when it comes to small business wedo everything we can to stay alive and put 110 per cent into it ...everyone in small business has been cleaning and these restrictions on small business has to pay the price for stupidity of some COVID-idiots so I really feel bad about that."

But by Thursday at 12:01 a.m. even essential businesses will be adding another restriction to the list: they can only be open between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. This is one of many additional measures the Ontario government is implementing Thursday as the province has entered a state of emergency to deal with a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Yet Bonato, who is also the president of the Ottawa StreetBusiness Improvement Association, says it's still unfair that small, non-essential businesses must stay closed.

"I think right now for a second lockdown everyone should be considered essential," he said. "This is hard on everyone to stay at home so we as business owners go into our stores and try to do curbside try to stay alive."

Chair of the Downtown Windsor BIA (DWBIA)Brian Yeomans said he feels the same and argues that the new measures are still favouring big box stores and forcing small shops to struggle.

"It's still affecting the small businesses where it'svery lightly affecting big box stores thatare able to sell products still without incident," he said. "I want everybodyto be safe and I want the pandemic to go awaybut at the same time you have to be able to be fair to all of the businesses not just to the big box stores."

At this time, he said none of his members have gone out of business as a result of the pandemic.

He said the DWBIA continues to call on the provincial government to prevent big box stores from selling non-essential items or to allow small businesses to open but with more targeted restrictions, such as a limited capacity.

As of Thursday, non-essential businesses will have been closed for a month as the region entered lockdown on Dec. 14.