One side of Steeles is back in business as York reopens,

Closed Toronto businesses frustrated as shops just steps away in York Region reopen

As he ponders his still-empty dining room, Nick Gianopoulos sighs in frustration.

“Five hundred feet away, and they can let people inside, but I can’t? How does that make any sense at all? It’s terrible,” said Gianopoulos, owner of Laterna, a small North York restaurant serving Greek and Italian food.

Laterna, to Gianopoulos’s chagrin, sits just south of Steeles Avenue, the border between Toronto and York Region.

In Toronto and Peel Region, there’s still a stay-at-home order in effect to slow the spread of COVID-19, at least until March 8. On Monday, York Region moved out of the stay-at-home order and into the “red zone,” meaning restaurants could allow indoor dining, barbers could provide haircuts and non-essential retailers could open up, at limited capacity.

Just a few minutes away from Laterna on the north side of Steeles in Thornhill, Sababa Fine Foods offers a wide array of Middle Eastern foods at its deli counter.

The family which owns Sababa is mulling over whether or not to open up the

dining room, now that they’re allowed to have diners inside.

“We’re considering opening up Thursday to Sunday, just to give people some sense of normal life,” said George Azar.

“It’s not even about money at this point, because we wouldn’t be making money with 10 people in a 150-seat dining room.”

That discrepancy frustrates Toronto business owners who’ve struggled with various levels of restrictions since the global pandemic was declared last March.

It also means, small business advocates say, that Toronto residents will simply head a few minutes north to do their shopping, eat in a restaurant or, especially, to trim their lockdown-lengthened hair.

“To have your competition be able to open when you can’t is incredibly frustrating, especially if it’s a one-off thing like a haircut. You might get takeout a couple times a week, but you’re not doing that with a haircut,” said Ryan Mallough, Ontario regional director of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

“People will just drive or walk to where they can get things done or go shopping. We already saw that in December,” said Mallough, referring to cellphone data which showed malls in surrounding areas were packed with Toronto residents ahead of Christmas, when non-essential retail was closed for in-store shopping.

Toronto Mayor John Tory said Monday that the city would be monitoring cellphone data to see if that happens again, but admitted the data won’t stop anything from happening in real-time.

“It takes a few days for us to see it,” Tory said.

Mallough urged Toronto officials, Tory and medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa to loosen the restrictions as soon as possible. Extending them past March 8 would have a devastating impact on already struggling businesses, Mallough said.

In an afternoon press conference, De Villa wouldn’t make any promises.

“I’ve learned, best not to make any predictions … especially when we’re talking about variants of concern, which has given us a new pandemic,” said de Villa.

“There is no such thing as a healthy economy or a healthy business without healthy people,” de Villa said.

Gianopoulos is frustrated not just for his own restaurant, but also for his neighbours and tenants, some of whom have struggled with takeout and deliveryonly service.

“I already had a good takeout business before, so that’s helped. I’m OK. But some of my other tenants, they’re really struggling,” said Gianopoulos, who adds that he hasn’t had a single day off since March 15.

“Without the dining room open, we don’t need as many staff, so I’m in here every single day at 5 a.m.,” said Gianopoulos. “I’d like to take a day off, but I just can’t.”