COVID-19 response put businesses under microscope
At least one business fined as bylaw officers enforce provincial order regarding what can remain open
Niagara municipalities say they are taking an educational approach to enforcing provincial orders over COVID-19. However, at least one business has been fined.
It was issued in Niagara-on-theLake by a bylaw enforcement officer after several visits.
“Everything’s about compliance, right?” Lord Mayor Betty Disero said
Tuesday.
She added: “Any non-essential business, or even the essential businesses that are not complying, will be ticketed or fined. As they should be. It’s not about them, it’s about the public.”
Neither she nor town community and development services director Craig Larmour would identify the business where the fine was issued.
However, Disero said she was told Niagara Regional Police had been to the Bass Pro Shops outlet in Niagaraon-the-Lake since the weekend.
“Yes, from what I heard the police had been there twice. Yes. Absolutely,” she said, adding she didn’t know the nature of the calls.
Phone calls and emails to the store on Taylor Road and to Bass Pro’s headquarters in Springfield, Mo., were not returned Monday or Tues
day. Its website and phone message indicate customers can still order items for same-day curbside pickup, but the store itself is closed to customers.
The province’s Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act was put in place to limit people’s social contact and restrict the spread of COVID-19.
On April 3, the province narrowed its list of essential workplaces to 44 from 74, ordering all others temporarily closed. Some — including those selling such items as pet supplies, hardware or safety gear — remain open only for curbside or delivery sales. It also limits crowds in public places to no more than five people.
“We’ve given advice to as many people as we can with our interpretation” of the province’s regulation 82-20, said Disero. “We’re trying to be as helpful as possible, we’re trying to go through stages of education, warnings and when all else fails … we’re giving fines.”
As of late Tuesday neither of Niagara’s largest municipalities, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls, had issued any fines against businesses.
Closer to Toronto, only Mississauga was known to have fined a non-essential business for being open. Several municipalities fined individuals who ignored social distancing rules.
While a provincial regulation, municipal bylaw officers are enforcing it. Across Niagara, city and town websites all provide information on how to contact bylaw enforcement departments to lodge a complaint.
In Niagara-on-the-Lake, Larmour said, bylaw officers “have been visiting stores and businesses that are open and helping them to determine whether or not they are essential businesses and allowed to open.”
If they’re non-essential but found open, he said, the officer provides them information on the province’s order and advises them to close.
“And if they don’t close, then we provide a notice to them. Essentially, if you don’t comply we will be back to fine you on re-inspection.”
At that point, he said, police will be asked to have an officer present as a fine is issued.
He said the fine, set by the province at $750, would be issued to “the person responsible for the store at that time.”
“It could be an owner, it could be a local manager.
“I would say the list of complaints is large, and we have issued a number of notices to a number of businesses” but only one fine, he said.
“And we’ll be back on a daily basis to ensure they are complying.”
He said the town has received 50 to 60 complaints from the public regarding people not following social distancing rules or about businesses they felt are non-essential and should be closed.