BETTER TIMES ON TAP?
Mallory Welechenko of Trolley 5 on 17th Avenue S.W. cleans draft spigots on Friday. The owners have spaced tables 21/2 metres apart and will take the temperatures of staff at the start of each shift as businesses contemplate how to run amid a pandemic.
Alberta businesses are concerned about a possible shortage of masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment as the province prepares to begin the staged reopening of the economy next week.
On Thursday, Premier Jason Kenney announced the province was ready to begin lifting some COVID-19 restrictions, with dentists and other health-care specialists allowed to reopen as early as Monday and some non-essential businesses, including retailers and restaurants subject to capacity restrictions, able to open by midmonth.
But while the news was welcomed by businesses that have suffered a revenue collapse since mandatory closure orders were announced in March, it also left some operators wondering what exactly they will be required to do to keep staff and employees safe.
At Calgary brew pub Trolley 5, co-owner Ernie Tsu has been thinking for weeks about how he will safely manage a reopening. His team has already decided they will space tables 2½ metres apart and he plans to ask his employees to submit to temperature checks when they arrive for each shift.
However, Tsu, who also sits on the board of the Alberta Hospitality Association, said there are still many unknowns, and those unknowns could influence whether a May 14 opening date is feasible.
“With the government making this announcement so fast, will there be enough masks available for staff ? Will there be enough disposable rubber gloves?” Tsu said. “Will every single business need to have a Plexiglas shield installed? The government needs to tell us what the mandates are.”
The province has already stated non-essential businesses that reopen must adhere to the two-metre distancing rule and follow proper sanitation procedures. It also has COVID-19 workplace guidelines available on its website.
Those guidelines, applicable to a wide range of businesses including all the essential services that have remained in operation up to now, are general in nature and provide ways to prevent transmission of the virus, including limiting hours of operation, installing physical barriers to separate customers and staff, and putting physical distancing markers on the floor.
Alberta Health spokesman Tom Mcmillan said in an email Friday that guidelines will be expanded “in the coming days” to answer some of the questions businesses might have.
Tsu said depending on what these new guidelines entail, some restaurants and cafes could hold off on reopening. They will already be facing the prospect of significantly lower revenues due to capacity restrictions, so spending money on costly safety measures like plastic shields may be impossible.
“If there are more details that come out that restrict guest experience, then it just will not work,” Tsu said.
Ken Kobly, president and CEO of the Alberta Chambers of Commerce, said the initial reopening of the economy will be a “confidence game,” adding it will not work if employees and customers don’t believe they are being kept safe.
But he said some of the measures that would provide some of that reassurance around safety, such as PPE, will be challenging for small businesses to pay for.
“So there may have to be some support from the federal or provincial government to assist them in the cost of acquiring those PPES or maybe making modifications to their outlets,” Kobly said.
A survey last week by the Canadian Federation of Independent
Business found 56 per cent of Alberta small business owners surveyed want clear, plain-language guidance on safe health practices that they can use with staff and customers when they reopen. An additional 53 per cent want regular assurance from health officials that it is safe to work and shop again, and 36 per cent want access to personal protective equipment like masks, face shields, gloves and plastic screens at cash registers.
The province does need to give guidance when it comes to reopening, but it need not be overly complicated, said Loren Falkenberg, senior associate dean of graduate and professional programs with the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business.
“When the state of Georgia in the U.S. opened, I think there was something like over 22 pages of legal requirements, which is probably more than most small businesses could handle,” Falkenberg said. “But in this case, we already have the early lessons from the businesses that have stayed open.”
Falkenberg added that nearly as important as the safety measures businesses take will be the “visibility” of the safety measures. That will be key to customer confidence, she said.
“We have learned that physical distancing, handwashing and hand sanitizer works,” Falkenberg said. “So if we can visibly show that that’s how businesses are taking steps, then I think we should be in pretty good shape.”
With the government making this announcement so fast, will there be enough masks available for staff ?