(Photo: Shane Clausing / EverythingGP staff)

By Abby Zieverink

Grande Prairie & District Chamber of Commerce

Local Chamber hopeful new COVID-19 restrictions are the final push

Sep 16, 2021 | 2:31 PM

The Grande Prairie & District Chamber of Commerce is reacting to the latest set of COVID-19 restrictions implemented by the Alberta government.

On September 15, the province announced a state of public health emergency as well as what it calls “new temporary health measures” in efforts to stop the growth of COVID-19 case numbers in the province.

These measures include that as of Monday, restaurants would have limitations to outdoor dining as well as six people per table, and retail stores would be limited to one-third capacity unless they opt to join the Restriction Exemption Program.

This would require these businesses to check customers for proof of vaccination issued by the government or a recent negative COVID-19 test the customer paid for themselves.

READ MORE: Alberta to bring in additional public health measures, declares health emergency

Grande Prairie & District Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors chair Larry Gibson says although it is still early to get feedback from businesses in the community, he knows from a previous survey that they were not in favour of a vaccine passport.

“They didn’t want that (vaccination status) downloaded onto their business. They’re already struggling to find staff once they were able to open up and now, they’re going to have another layer they are going to have to comply with.”

“I think the reaction of business especially in the hospitality industry… they’re not going to be super pleased to have this downloaded onto them.”

Although Gibson says there has been mixed feedback on what people believed needed to happen with restrictions, he says meeting and abiding by these restrictions will be something that will have to be dealt with.

“I think it’s going to be a tough one for them here, they were just seeing some sense of normalcy and now they have another layer of restrictions and things they are going to have to put in place to deal with, so it’s going to be a big impact for sure.”

“I think there was a glimmer of some hope through the summer and now, with the numbers… I understand the decisions that had to be made just based on the numbers because the numbers are getting a little scary, so they needed to do something.”

Fifty-three-point-seven per cent of eligible Grande Prairie residents (12 and older) have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Across the province, 71.4 per cent of eligible Albertans are fully vaccinated.

With Grande Prairie seeing a lower than the provincial average for the vaccine uptake, Gibson suggests the new restrictions could have a larger impact on the area.

“The numbers don’t lie,” he says. “If people can’t prove (vaccination status) and can’t come into the establishments, it’s definitely going to have an impact on the patrons that are going to be allowed to go into that building.”

Gibson says he hopes these restrictions will be the final push to getting businesses fully back up and running.

“I just hope this measure is the one that we can get people doing the right thing, and get that curve bent and back to normal here.”

“We certainly don’t want to have a reversal, we don’t want to see this get any worse, we want to see it get better.”