BONNYVILLE – Local municipalities, businesses, and organizations were among those advocating for the province to allow personal services to be reopened by appointment amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We feel the continued forced closures and lockdowns on our business and many other businesses like ours are unjust,” stressed Elegance 719 Salon and Spa manager Tammy Hebert in a letter to clients and community members. “While many large box stores and retail outlets are continuing to operate and remain open, we have been forced to close our doors.”
Hebert urged people to sign a petition that was advocating to get the beauty industry back to work after the provincial government forced them to close back in December. They also reached out to municipalities who reached out to the government of Alberta on their behalf, along with other organizations who represent local entrepreneurs.
The previous regulations forced restaurants to close their dine-in areas and only offer delivery, take-out, and curbside pick-up. While personal and wellness services, which includes tattoo parlours, salons, and barbershops, were forced to close down completely.
An easing of restrictions announced on Jan. 14 by the province has allowed outdoor gatherings to include up to 10 people, 20 people will be alloed to go to a funeral ceremony, and personal and wellness services will be allowed to be opened by appointment only. These changes come into effect on Jan. 18.
After hearing from frustrated residents, both Town and MD of Bonnyville councils recently discussed the impacts the previous mandates had on the local beauty industry and what could be done to assist them in getting back to work.
“I have been inundated for about the last two and a half weeks with regard to COVID-19,” stressed Town of Bonnyville Mayor Gene Sobolewski, during the municipality's Jan. 12 meeting. “Particularly when the province of Alberta announced further restrictions. There’s a growing animosity and I tend to agree with them that we’ve got retail, say for example your grocery stores and things like that, and there’s local stores here in Bonnyville or Cold Lake, there’s a whole plethora of them that you’re allowed to go in.”
According to Town of Bonnyville Coun. Chad Colbourne, the town has already seen two salons close their doors permanently due to the lockdowns, and he worries what it could mean for the municipality’s business community.
“I don’t know how much longer any more of these people can hold on."
MD of Bonnyville council passed a motion during its Jan. 13 meeting to write a letter to Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul MLA David Hanson "stating the importance that all businesses are able to open and to allow enforcement at the municipal level."
“The businesses are hurting,” noted MD of Bonnyville Reeve Greg Sawchuk. “Even with the support programs that are out there. For a lot of them, these are their absolute livelihoods. They’ve got everything invested into them and to have zero income, as much as some of the restaurants tried to go to take out, you know what? People just aren’t used to doing that, and there hasn’t been a huge uptake.”
Both Sawchuk and Sobolewski acknowledged incidents in the province where salons and barbershops were opened for business, where the owners faced huge fines or prosecution for going against the previous mandates.
“Rather than making people criminals, why aren’t we working with them and just being consistent?” Sawchuk wondered. “That’s the issue I see with a lot of the guidelines that are coming out is the lack of consistency in how they’re applied.”
Local municipalities weren’t the only ones reaching out to the provincial government on behalf of businesses.
In a Jan. 12 letter, Cold Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce president Ryan Lefebvre detailed how the previous mandates showed the province choosing winners and losers when it came to determining what was an essential business, and what wasn’t.
“You chose to close businesses who have followed every health recommendation, invested in additional health procedures, despite the fact that they had already practiced very high standards with regards to sanitization procedures even pre COVID-19. In your own words, there has been a zero-transmission rate from industries such as restaurants and personal services, yet you closed these industries and continue to do so,” he wrote. “Continuing these closures will have a significant impact on these businesses and many simply will not reopen after this round of closures should this continue much longer.”
Hebert noted in her statement that there "has not been a single outbreak traced back to our industry and then a week later (the province) closed our doors anyway."
“Yet, there have been multiple outbreaks coming from schools and they are open. (Premier Jason Kenney's) reasoning for schools to remain open is so parents can work. We are parents, yet we cannot work,” she continued.
As of the Jan. 14 update, there were 10 schools on alert, with a total of 10 cases and outbreaks having been declared in two schools in the province with a total of five cases. According to the province, in-school transmission has occurred in three schools with all three of them having one new case occur as a result.
While some schools have had issues when it comes to community transmission, Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) associate superintendent Bill Driedger noted in-school transmission has been next to none for the division.
“From Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) perspective, they’re telling us the same, as well,” he noted during the board of trustees meeting on Jan. 13. “However, we do know that community spread impacts whether or not students, or on some occasions, staff are infected with COVID-19. Because our community members are high, we can expect that to happen with our students and perhaps our staff as well as was the case prior to the Christmas break.”
Kenney implored all Albertans, businesses, organizations, and service providers to continue to be diligent when it comes to following existing health measures.
“This limited easing of restrictions is possible thanks to the efforts of Albertans over the past few weeks,” he detailed in a press release. “But, we need to be careful that we don’t reduce too early and risk the steady improvements we’ve made since November. We want to ensure the safety of Albertans, while balancing the uncertainty faced by Alberta businesses and service providers. We will continually be evaluating the public health data to make adjustments where possible.”
The province will continue to monitor provincial and regional trends to see if other restrictions could be eased in the future.
