If you were at the St. Albert Costco last Tuesday at 2 p.m., you may have noticed a small group of cars slowly driving around the parking lot with signs taped to windows and doors calling for the province to reopen small businesses.
A group of local businesses is frustrated with extended closures and is calling on the government to have everything opened back up on Jan. 21.
“I have no issue with the Costco being open. I have an issue with the arbitrary decision that a mom-and-pop shop can't stay open, but a Costco can,” said Ken Shebib, the owner of Paddy’s Pub and Kitchen in St. Albert.
The group was going to hold a series of protests in the Edmonton area until Jan. 21. However, the province made an announcement on Jan. 14 that personal services were allowed to reopen, and the group hasn’t held a protest since Jan.13.
“I think (the government is) just reactionary now. I don't think they have a plan. I don't think they have any sense about it. I think they are just listening to the statistics of what they think will give them the most support with their constituents,” said Shebib.
Shebib is happy personal service businesses have reopened but he is still frustrated by the province's choice to keep other businesses closed.
“Bars, restaurants and pubs – places that can socially distance and can respect the protocols – should be open,” he said. He added he understands why businesses in places like Lethbridge and Innisfail have opened up despite public health orders, and can foresee businesses in St. Albert doing the same as many people have bills to pay.
“Preservation of the business is going to become very important on the 21st,” he said.
Stewart Bates, who runs two F45 gym studios in the Edmonton area, is part of the group of local business owners frustrated with the government. He wasn’t able to make it to the protests and said he wouldn’t say F45 is protesting, but they aren’t happy about being closed either.
Bates said they had zero transmission in any of the 14 to 16 Edmonton-area F45s. He would like to reopen but he doesn’t like the yo-yo of having to open and then close down again.
“If they let us open next week and then they close this down again, it just gets even worse for everybody so I'm kind of undecided on how I feel about it,” he said.
Bates has a lot of staff to look after between the two gyms he runs.
“We had to lay off everybody ... we brought everybody back, and then we had to rearrange their commitments. Instead of having them as employees, we made them contractors, so it was easier. And then they shut us down again and we had to let everybody go,” he said.
He said it also makes memberships complicated.
“It's a lot of deleting clients and adding clients,” he said.
Bates has concerns about how the province is handling the pandemic, namely which businesses the province chooses to close or keep open.
Big box gyms were allowed to remain open during the second shut down, but Bates was forced to close his gyms despite having a large space and doing everything he could to keep the area safe.
“We double spray everything, we do temperature checks when people come in – it's very safe, and we weren't given that chance to stay open and keep it safe,” he said.
Diane Chong, who owns a salon in St. Albert, was allowed to reopen her business Monday. She was ecstatic about that, but feels for business owners who have to keep their doors closed.
“The only thing I want to come out of this is that businesses open on the 21st. I am law-abiding. I'm not an anti-masker," she said.
“The small businesses need to open their doors. That's my number one thing. I know what gets put into it and to have it just stopped is debilitating. Every business needs to be back up."
Chong said she expects the province will announce further reopenings on Jan. 21.
“We just need to all pull together to make sure that we can shop local, eat local ... and help the little guys before the big guy.”
The Alberta Health website states they need to be careful not to remove public health restrictions too quickly as Alberta still has a high case number and aggressive action is still required to keep the public health system from being overwhelmed.
The public health measures announced on Jan. 14 allowed for personal service businesses to open by appointment only on Jan. 18. Outdoor social gatherings are also allowed under the new public health measures, but gatherings are limited to ten people.
As of Monday, St. Albert had 173 active cases of COVID-19 and 1,623 recovered cases. Twenty-eight people have died. Meanwhile, the province had a total of 11,923 active cases, with 739 hospitalized and 120 people in ICU.
