WESTLOCK - Non-essential businesses like hair salons and furniture stores have been ordered closed by the province March 27, when the confirmed COVID-19 count reached 542 in Alberta.
The list, available on the Alberta government’s website, also includes dine-in services in restaurants, any non-essential retail, and all close-contact personal service (salons, cosmetic facilities, wellness studios).
All closures are subject to the penalties introduced the day before (see page 9 for enforcement of AHS measures).
Although most close-contact medical facilities, e.g. dentists, have already closed their doors to non-emergency procedures, the provincial government has now mandated they do so.
In restaurants, traffic was already slow before the Friday announcement. David Truckey, who owns Dairy Queen (franchise) and Apollo Pizza (private) says business is somewhere between 40 and 50 per cent of normal operations at Apollo Pizza.
“There’s certainly an increase of take-out (but) it’s certainly not replacing our entire business. I think if you took a poll of local non-branded restaurants, I would suspect they’re down (the same amount),” said Truckey.
While at DQ, the corporate office mandated dining area closures long before Friday, Apollo’s was still allowing dine-in but traffic was really low.
“You could just see by the customer count that our customers are trying to stay home as much as possible,” said Truckey.
Most of the employees at Apollo Pizza have been laid off since Thursday, which Truckey says was a decision made based on the already small in-house customer numbers.
“At Dairy Queen, we have people laid off as well, although in those cases we have extended the offer of any person who chose not to be working because of family reasons, children out of school, personal choice,” he said.
All salons across Westlock are now closed, and some retail shops had to shut down their businesses even earlier in the week (see page 8 for more).
“The actions we are taking are tough but necessary to protect public health. We understand that behind every such decision lies tens of thousands of jobs and businesses that will throw people into economic and financial anxiety,” said premier Jason Kenney on Friday.
Some programs are available, mainly from the federal government, which announced a 75 per cent wage subsidy for small business owners (increased from 10 per cent) and Truckey thinks there will be a “flood of applications,” his included.
“I suspect that there will be businesses across Alberta that are not going to survive. That’s a given right now. Even when things return to normal, most people are looking at deferral of payment, not payment forgiveness. When the economy comes back, when we’re able to return to a more normal life, people are going to have a lot of debt that they’ve been accumulating because they’ve been deferring it,” said Truckey.
Andreea Resmerita, TownandCountryToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @andreea_res
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