City remains stage behind
Peel, Windsor-Essex join Toronto as upturn of cases delays move to Stage 3
In just four days, Torontonians were supposed to join the rest of Ontario in moving to Stage 3 of the province’s economic reopening.
Friday would have seen restaurants and bars with indoor seating, gyms and fitness studios, movie theatres and outdoor playgrounds reopen in 24 of Ontario’s 34 public health districts, including Toronto, Hamilton, Windsor-Essex and the Niagara Region.
The indoor gathering limit was to be raised to 50, and the outdoor gathering limit to 100, subject to physical distancing.
But with COVID-19 cases on the uptick, those plans have been put on hold.
Toronto, Peel Region and WindsorEssex will remain in Stage 2, while Hamilton and the rest of the GTA will move to Stage 3 as planned on Friday.
Premier Doug Ford said the numbers in these regions are not where they should be and that the possibility of Stage 3 beginning July 31 for these areas will be revisited next week.
Toronto business owners say the delay comes as no surprise.
Jason Ching, co-owner of Omai Restaurant in Toronto, said he wasn’t planning to allow indoor seating Friday even if he had the go-ahead.
On Sunday, the whole team sat down to discuss the possibility, he said, but they’re just not there yet, and would prefer to stick to patio service.
“I think we’re more comfortable doing that than having people sit inside,” he said.
The restaurant is doing takeout and has a patio that seats 10, though Ching said it could go up to 12 or even 14. If they opened their indoor seating, what once sat 22 would now seat eight.
Ginger Robertson, co-owner of the Edmund Burke and Off the Hook in Toronto’s Danforth area, said her businesses are prepared to open indoor seating, but she had already guessed Stage 3 would be delayed by at least another week in Toronto.
Stage 3 would allow for another 25
patrons between the two establishments, Robertson said, but she’s more concerned about her lack of patio space. The Edmund Burke’s patio only holds three patrons, or up to eight after 6 p.m., when she uses her neighbour’s patio space.
Robertson wants to be able to expand her patio onto the sidewalk, but said her business is too close to the intersection — and the Edmund Burke has a backyard that would work for a patio, but it’s too close to a parking lot that’s zoned as residential, so it can’t be used.
“We’re just being denied all over the place,” she said.
Ontario reported 135 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, up from 111 on Friday. The latest public health numbers show 404 active cases in Toronto, compared with 49 in Durham and 111 in York.
Restaurants and bars were permitted to reopen in Alberta in May, while Quebec began allowing restaurants to reopen in June.
On Monday, Quebec reported 150 new cases, a rise from previous numbers. Alberta reported 105 new cases Friday and 120 the day before, the first day above 100 in more than two months. Toronto Mayor John Tory asked Ford to make masks mandatory inside Toronto bars and restaurants, in an open letter published Sunday. He noted the resurgence of cases not just in Ontario, but in Alberta and Quebec after bars and restaurants were allowed to reopen.
“I firmly believe that for the good of the province and our city, we must continue to move forward safely but we also must do everything we can to continue to stop the spread of COVID-19,” he wrote.
Tory has also recommended restaurants and bars offering indoor seating be made to close by midnight instead of 2 a.m.
Robertson said this would be a death knell for the Edmund Burke, which is popular among people who work in the food industry and often aren’t done work until midnight.
Between this, the limitations on patios and the fact that many landlords in the area, including hers, aren’t applying for the rent relief program, Robertson said she’s faced with a difficult decision.
“Our lease is up in March, and if things don’t change rather quickly, we’re done,” she said.
Ontario’s state of emergency ends Friday, but the government is expected to pass legislation this week giving it more permanent emergency powers.
Stage 3 still restricts certain places and activities, including amusement parks and water parks, buffets, overnight camps, nightclubs, dancing and singing in bars, and saunas.
Ching said many restaurants, especially smaller establishments, are wary of reopening their indoor seating — he estimates some could wait until the fall to do so.
“They’ll open when they feel comfortable,” he said. “It’s very individual.” He said he’d rather take things slowly than be forced to regress stages or, worse, close down completely again. And with the wage subsidy extended until December, Ching said the business has a little more “runway” to take their time.