Many New Brunswick businesses are preparing for at least 16 consecutive days without customers under the new COVID-19 restrictions.
Prime Minister Blaine Higgs announced Thursday that the province will move to level 3 of the government’s winter plan, which includes mandatory closures for many service businesses such as bars, gyms and beauty salons.
The changes will take effect at 11:59 p.m. Friday and are scheduled to last through January 30.
Kevin Ferguson, owner of O’Leary’s Pub in uptown Saint John, said he opted to close his doors Thursday at 5 pm, believing he would lose less money if he closed a day and a half earlier.
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He said he doesn’t like them, but has accepted the need for tighter restrictions.
“We have to do this in the short term and I understand that,” Ferguson said. “But the short term now is two years. And thus new habits are created and therefore what will be the lasting impact?
Ferguson said some people during the pandemic are getting used to not socializing in establishments like his, hurting their bottom line, and he fears a trend.
“Are we going to be afraid of everything every time?” I ask. “A few years ago, if we had a snow storm, we would still have people outside. People were not afraid of him. Now people are afraid of him.”
Blaine Harris, the owner and operator of the Lancaster Barber Shop, is less accepting of the forced closure.
A handwritten sign on the exterior door of O’Leary’s Pub in Saint John, NB, announcing that the establishment will be closed under the province’s level 3 COVID-19 restrictions.
Tim Roszell/Global News
Harris, who contracted COVID-19 during the holiday season, said the service sector is being unfairly targeted.
“I think it’s crazy,” Harris said of the restrictions. “We are an industry… we have been doing everything that we were supposed to do in Level 2 (of the Winter Plan). No one enters here who is not vaccinated, if they are sick, they do not enter these industries and, suddenly, what is closed is not retail. It is a service industry. It’s the hairdressers, the barbers, the spas, places that haven’t had COVID outbreaks.”
Harris said she doesn’t qualify for government programs like the New Brunswick Small Business Recovery Grant program, which provides up to $10,000 for eligible businesses. He said he will have to absorb the losses on his own.
He said he doesn’t understand why some interactive services like dental and physical therapy clinics remain open while he has to close.
“Those people are with a client for an hour, two hours at a time,” he said. “We are with someone for 10 minutes.”
Louis-Philippe Gauthier, Atlantic spokesman for the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, said optimism among its members across the country is fairly low for the first three months of the year, but their outlook improves over time.
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Still, he said the damage from COVID-19 to businesses has been “cumulative” and is getting worse.
“We’re starting a new year with a lot of debt racking up, rising prices in the supply chain, rising prices from an insurance perspective, cost pressures on labor and our payrolls,” Gauthier said. “And that’s not going to change, unfortunately.”
Ferguson said he qualifies for some government programs. He said he is hopeful the cruise industry will return for the first time in three years once the province clears this latest pandemic hurdle.
“I believe in business,” he said. “I believe in what is going to happen in the future. Will come.
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