Local officials are urging everyone – residents and business owners alike – not to break the rules when it comes to the current stay at home order from the province.
Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Colby says protests and businesses defying provincial regulations are missing the point.
“There seems to be a disconnect between folks that are protesting and opening in defiance of provincial law,” Dr. Colby says. “The lockdown is not the problem, the lockdown is a reaction to a wave of very serious infection, where we’re seeing younger and younger people being admitted to hospital with a serious disease, this is the reaction to the reality of a third wave.”
Dr. Colby maintains lockdowns are effective in reducing new cases of COVID-19, and people need to respect the rules aimed at keeping everyone safe.
Municipal CAO Don Shropshire says there are supports for businesses to help them through the pandemic, but also consequences for store owners and their customers who break the rules.
“Individual patrons can be fined up to $880 for attending a place of business that’s supposed to be closed, that’s the person doing the shopping,” Shropshire explains. “The businesses themselves, the fines can be up to $100,000 and for corporations it’s up to $10-million. This is very serious stuff and for goodness sakes, we don’t want people to be suffering more financial hardship just because they’re choosing to ignore it.”
Municipal officials say they are aware of a planned event encouraging local businesses to open their doors on April 30th, less than a week before the current stay-at-home order is set to expire on May 6th.
“Opening Day Ontario” organizer Ben Labadie is encouraging people to “go back to our lives where kids play sports, businesses can prosper and people can be free to be with their families and friends.”
The Chatham-Kent Police Service, Public Health Unit, and By-Law Enforcement are actively monitoring this event, and officials say they’ll conduct inspections of associated businesses and will lay charges, if warranted.
So far, the municipality has issued one fine for a gathering during the current lock down, 35 inspections of business have taken place, and seven educational warnings issued.