Ottawa businesses eager for COVID-19 restrictions to drop

For Ottawa businesses owners, the last two years have felt like Groundhog Day; a repetitive cycle of restrictions and re-openings capped off by an unexpected shutdown in January.

“There’s been a few (final) corners now. It feels more like we’ve been going around in a circle,” Johny Bonney, Assistant General Manager of The King Eddy said.

Tuesday, it continues. The Ontario government is lifting all indoor capacity restrictions, and vaccination passports will no longer be required at businesses or municipal and provincial facilities.

Ottawa restaurants say they’re eager to see the restrictions lifted.

“Hopefully it puts people at ease and just keeps our momentum towards some normalcy and we can all put this stuff behind us,” Bonney said.

“It’s been two years of a continuous loss and I had to take loans to keep the business alive. Hopefully now that will be the turning point, that would be really nice,” Yoav D’Vaja, owner of Bread & Sons.

The Bank Street bakery owner says he’s suffered significantly throughout the pandemic, and it was only made worse during the Freedom Convoy, when the bakery was shut down, but D’Vaja decided to continue paying his seven employees.

“They count on me for their income, so I feel responsible for that. The books don’t look good, but I just felt like I had to do that and bear the consequences kind of and see how it will unfold,” he said.

D’Vaja has since turned to crowdfunding support for his restaurant, a GoFundMe campaign has already raised over $1800, and there’s hope between community support and a relaxation of restrictions Bread & Sons will soon recover.

“The spring is here and if they lift the restrictions then it should be much better,” D’Vaja said.

However, small business advocates argue it’s not necessarily the restrictions, or lack thereof, that will drive change.

“Right now, with all of the different mandates that have been put it place to protect people’s public health, it has affected people’s consumer confidence, in terms of going out and patronizing these places. What we need to right now is we need people to go out, support the local business, and the Ontario government to work on recreating consumer confidence all over again,” Michael Wood said.

It's a sentiment shared by some in restaurants, weary of the choice many businesses are now facing: whether or not to continue checking vaccination status.

“I think, for us, people understand that it’s kind of an impossible situation. You’re going to win a few people with not having and it and you’re going to lose a few people with not having it. It’s a difficult position, but hopefully people can be understanding about it,” Bonney said.

Health officials tell CTV News they believe now is the right time to reconsider the restrictions, adding the public should feel safe returning to businesses.

“I think now is the time to be able to start looking at how can we live with COVID-19 around us but at the same time keep things open and live as normally as possible while still protecting a vulnerable population,” Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, Chief Medical Health Officer for the Eastern Ontario Public Health Unit said.

“I think, at this point, we’ve seen the fall in the cases, drastically really, as compared to about a month ago,” he added.

Still, a word of caution from Ontario Premier Doug Ford just hours ahead of the province officially removing the restrictions.

“Be cautious, we’re not through this yet. We see the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter every day, but we’re just glad through the hard work of everyone in Ontario that we’re able to take the next step,” Ford said.