Chatham-Kent officials have a message for those in areas with higher COVID-19 caseloads – stay safe, but stay home.
Chatham-Kent is currently in the province’s Yellow-Protect level of COVID restrictions, while neighbouring Middlesex-London is in the Red-Control group and Windsor-Essex is in Grey-Lockdown.
There’s been some backlash on social media by those who believe Chatham-Kent should be more welcoming to potential shoppers and diners from other communities who can’t shop as freely in their own region.
However, Director of Economic Development Stuart McFadden says it’s not personal, it’s business.
“They say it’s us against them, Chatham-Kent is doing this, Chatham-Kent is doing that, they won’t allow us in and I’ll never shop there again…” McFadden says. “We want people to come to our community, we want our businesses to be in business, but we also recognize right now it’s very serious. It’s important that we don’t let our guard down.”
Some restaurants have chosen to check ID when potential customers come in, and are turning away anyone who is not a Chatham-Kent resident.
McFadden says the best advice comes from our local health professionals.
“You don’t want to listen to your doctor, okay that’s fine. The reality is I listen to mine. Dr. Colby for 10 months has given us guidance on what we need to do to stay healthy as a community so we can keep our businesses open, or get them open,” McFadden says. “Right now my focus as Director of Economic Development and as a citizen of Chatham-Kent is to protect the health and wellbeing of the people and businesses of Chatham-Kent.”
McFadden says the best thing for everyone to do right now is support businesses in their own communities, and we can go back to travelling and visiting other communities in the region once it’s safe for everyone to do so.
