By Shaun Penner

New Restrictions Coming Sunday

Chamber chair hopeful new measures help curb COVID-19 as many businesses prepare to close-up

Dec 11, 2020 | 3:25 PM

The Chair of the Grande Prairie and District Chamber of Commerce says though he understands the need for new public health restrictions, it’s still a very tough blow for local businesses.

Larry Gibson says it was difficult to hear earlier this week that starting Sunday, many businesses in Alberta will have to close their doors (again) for at least the next four weeks, including gyms, casinos, and personal and wellness services like hair salons

“We were warned they were coming, so we weren’t overly shocked when the new restrictions came in,” said Gibson. “I definitely feel for businesses that were shutdown completely.”

The new restrictions will take effect at 12:01 a.m. on December 13, which will also see restaurants have to close for in-person dining.

Though the province had boasted at length that settings like restaurants or personal service businesses like hair and nail salons had not been the site of significant transmission of the novel coronavirus, Gibson says the provincial government and public health authorities likely felt they had to take much more drastic steps to slow the spread in the province.

“That’s where I feel for our professional establishments. They were abiding by the rules, they were making sure all the mitigation measures were in place to prevent the spread,” said Gibson. “We know the majority of cases were coming from social gatherings.

“So, it’s a bit tough to understand, but I think they just wanted to do that ‘hard stop’ to get the spread under control, and hopefully these measures are effective so we can get back to normal as soon as possible.”

One positive outcome Gibson is hopeful for coming out on the other side of these new restrictions is an increase in consumer confidence when out attending local businesses.

With new cases of COVID-19 on a sharp rise in Alberta over the last few months, as well as restrictions already in place like the mask mandate, many people have felt unsafe or uncomfortable leaving their homes and venturing local businesses in person.

Gibson hopes these tougher measures will help lower case counts and bring back a sense of normalcy.

“We were seeing a drop in traffic out into our businesses in the area,” said Gibson. “That might bring back that confidence.”

For retail stores, they will be permitted to keep their doors open, but at a capacity of just 15 per cent at one time.

Gibson applauds how businesses have quickly adapted to the new measures, like posting what their new capacity is right at the door for patrons to see on their way in.

He just asks residents to have patience at stores where you may have to wait a bit before you can enter.

“It’s no fault of their own. They’ve been doing an excellent job on the mitigations measures, but now with that reduced capacity, we will need people to just have that little bit of extra patience.”

Gibson also encourages any business that had to close its doors to apply for all grants available to them, including the expanded small- and medium-sized business relaunch grant from the province.

He adds he is taking a wait-and-see as to whether the expanded program announced Tuesday by the province will be enough to help get businesses through, but he is optimistic it will be.

“If it’s not, we definitely will, as a chamber, be advocating with our local officials to put more help in place that can get them through this.”