On Monday, Orillia and other communities within the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit were moved into the province's grey “lockdown” level, leaving frustrated business owners scrambling to try and keep their enterprises alive.
David Shaw, owner of Northern Joinery and Makers Market, says his business was already in a fragile spot before the move into the grey zone, but now, things are looking bleaker. Shaw says sales are currently almost non-existent as potential customers are urged to stay home.
“There are mixed messages out there that say shop local but stay home, so even when we are open there is a very drastic reduction of people who are coming through our store,” he explained.
Shaw says his businesses need to make $35,000 a month to just break even and to keep his 10 full-time staff members employed. In recent months, the stores have only realized about 25% of that amount, making breaking even seem impossible.
“Everyone is on board to keep all the citizens safe, but at some point in time people have to be a little bit selfish and try and at least pay their bills,” he said.
“The government is starting to lose people here, they are losing support for these closures.”
Shaw says he is a part of various online groups where local business owners have discussed defying provincial orders and opening their doors at 100 percent capacity.
“At this point, people are becoming very desperate and the most dangerous people are those with nothing to lose, so I think it’s becoming a very tricky situation for a lot of our population,” he said.
"The general consensus among the business owner community is for one year now we’ve done everything the government has asked us to do. We’ve closed our doors when asked, we’ve spent money on PPE, redesigned our website, blowing money hand over fist, and everybody feels let down that the government hasn’t lived up to their end of the bargain. I think there is a lot of unrest because of that.”
Shaw believes that the provincial government could rectify the situation and mend their relationship with small local business owners.
“The government needs to take a full hard stance and do a full proper lockdown like other countries did, rather than doing this political dance to try and keep some people happy. Had we have done that from the onset, we would be in a much better position right now,” he said.
Every month, Shaw has noticed more and more empty stores lining downtown Orillia streets. He is fearful that if more lockdowns ensue in the future, there could be no businesses left.
"We’ve already lost a lot of really great businesses that have been in downtown Orillia for a long time, and there are lots more who are just hanging on by a thread right now. It’s going to be very difficult to rebound from this,” he said.
Under the grey zone restrictions, personal care services like hair salons are no longer allowed to operate, leaving Tiffany Robertson, owner of Tiffany Hair & Co., no choice but to lay off all seven of her staff members.
“I’m a little disheartened. This is brutal,” Robertson said. “I’m friends with (owners of) most of the hair salons in town and they are feeling the same way right now.”
Robertson is confused as to why hair salons can’t be open, stressing the salon is safe.
Before being shut down, Robertson was screening all of her clients, taking temperatures and even hired extra staff to make sure no protocol was being missed.
Clients were being asked to wait in their car until they received a text to come in, waiting areas were removed, the reception desk was protected with plastic, staff and clients were wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), and everything was being cleaned and sanitized between each customer visit, she explained.
“I would love to have somebody (from the health unit or government) come into our salon and do a walk-through and see exactly what our protocols are and see what we are doing in order to keep it safe,” Robertson said.
“We’ve been following every rule the health unit has given us to a T, so it makes no sense that we are closed.”
Robertson has a hard time believing that salons are a high-risk place where COVID-19 could spread.
“You are hearing about outbreaks in the jails, outbreaks in the schools, old age homes, but you aren’t hearing about that with salons,” she said.
The fear for Robertson is that hairstylists will start doing house calls in unsafe environments as a way to keep making income.
Robertson is confident that Tiffany Hair & Co. will survive lockdown restrictions, but she is fearful that newer local businesses may face a different fate.
Local restaurants are also suffering. Currently, indoor and outdoor dining service is prohibited at eateries, and only take-out, drive-thru, and delivery are permitted. For Sanafir, a downtown restaurant, those options only account for ten to 12 percent of their revenue.
“People don’t come here for take-out," says chef and owner Omar Samir, who has had to lay off his five staff members. "It’s not as good as when you come dine-in. It’s also an experience to dine-in with the music and the Mediterranean atmosphere."
Samir says he would understand the lockdown restrictions if they applied to all businesses.
“This is ridiculous, you either go into a complete shutdown or you don’t do it at all. You can’t tell me only restaurants and salons need to close but the Dollar Store is open, ski hills are open, schools are open. Why close a small business like myself?” he questioned.
“I understand this is a critical situation and this virus is no joke, it’s a serious issue," he said. "That’s why the government needs to lock down everything and support everybody, but instead, we go half and half which is not working. We can’t afford this kind of loss anymore.”
After coming out of the last lockdown, Samir had ordered the ingredients necessary to run his restaurant. After being put into lockdown again, he’s afraid all his food will be going to waste.
Samir says he needs $3,600 a month to just pay for his rent, gas, and hydro, and he is currently averaging less than one take-out order each day.
“At this point, I’m just thinking about how I can keep surviving. When I go to bed at the end of the night, I feel anxiety because my rent is due, the cable, heat, hydro, dishwasher machine rental ... and there is nothing coming in my pocket,” he said.
Samir isn’t sure how much longer his business will survive, saying it’s dependant on how long the lockdown is in place.
Michael Knight, chair of the Downtown Orillia Management Board (DOMB) and president of Town’s Jewellers, says downtown businesses are seeing very little foot traffic since the grey regulations began Monday.
The fact that small businesses continue to struggle while big box stores continue to thrive is "unfair," Knight says.
“There is no fairness out there these days. Walmart and Costco are open, how is that fair to any small business? They sell all the things we sell down here within reason, but they are able to continue their business,” he said.
Knight says the DOMB is trying to help its local businesses, but they have limited resources to work with.
“It’s pretty tough for us. We have a limited budget as to what we can work with, but we are trying to stay on top of any type of grants or loans that are available and making sure our businesses are aware of them and know how to apply for them. We have been recommending where they can get PPE, and those sorts of things as well,” he said.
“But what a lot of these places really need is money, and we are just a little board with the City of Orillia. The actual money has to come from the province and the feds, which they have done with grant money, so for a lot of small businesses that grant money is a welcome, but it’s still tough.”
The Orillia District Chamber of Commerce (ODCC) is also advocating for local businesses, says managing director Allan Lafontaine. The ODCC has been working hard to obtain data to better understand why local businesses continue to be closed.
“We want to see what the data looks like, we want to see what’s causing the outbreaks, and we want to work to keep businesses open,” Lafontaine said.
The ODCC wants to see all local businesses open again and operating in a safe manner.
“My experience has been that our local businesses are operating in a safe manner. We have a different culture than what is south of us, so we are advocating for that right now and we are working on a policy position so we don’t keep slipping from red to grey,” Lafontaine said.
“It’s our goal to keep these businesses here, so we have to continue to push to get more data. That way we can better help our community.”
