Ontario Premier Doug Ford agrees the province’s emergency measures when it shut down the retail business sector in March because of COVID-19 were unfair.
Given that, his Progressive Conservative government should correct this unfairness as quickly as possible.
Unequal treatment of the retail business sector may have been defensible at the start of the COVID-19 emergency, when governments had to act fast to control the spread of the new coronavirus.
But it’s not excusable as the government reopens the economy.
The original wave of business closures and exemptions was based on out-of-date thinking that grocery stores only sell groceries and pharmacies only sell prescription and non-prescription drugs.
Thus, they were allowed to remain open, ignoring the fact supermarket, pharmacy and big box chains today sell many other retail products than just groceries and drugs.
They have continued to do so while other businesses that sell similar products have been forced to remain closed, causing those that have been able to survive, enormous economic damage.
[…]
See Also:
(1) Ontario’s top doctor won’t ban people from cottages despite one region warning of $5,000 fine
(2) Get ready, cottage country: Ford
Watch:
