Coronavirus: Ontario’s ‘watered-down’ list of essential workplaces mostly symbolic, expert says

On Monday, Ontario’s government released its list of “essential workplaces” that contained 74 general types of businesses that can stay open during the coronavirus pandemic.

The list includes businesses in the health-care, banking and telecommunications sectors, food service industry, construction, dry cleaning, office supplies and more.

“It seems to go on forever,” said Dan Henstra, an expert in emergency preparedness at the University of Waterloo, referring to the list.

Henstra said that, in an emergency, it’s absolutely critical for the government to keep businesses essential to the basics of life open and running with as few disruptions as possible. This means maintaining supply chains and ensuring the manufacturing of goods — including the production of food — can continue uninterrupted.

But, he adds, there’s no “formalized playbook” for deciding what is and isn’t essential. He also says governments are “terrible at picking winners and losers,” especially when deciding what businesses can remain open.

“Certainly, governments don’t like to alienate their support base,” he said. “But this (list) covers almost everything.”

In the case of Ontario, Henstra believes when deciding what is and isn’t essential, the government likely began with a genuine effort to stop people from congregating in areas where they’d be in close contact with each other, but eventually, the list of essential workplaces became a “watered-down” list of businesses meant to support people in their day-to-day lives, even as they are encouraged to remain home, social distance and self-isolate.

Henstra isn’t overly critical of the government’s efforts, noting that it’s hard to make these kinds of decisions in an emergency and even harder to enforce them, but he says there were also likely political considerations at play when deciding what remains open.

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“We’ve already got a cratering economy because of the pandemic,” he said. “Governments will be judged on their record.”

What’s essential?

What’s essential and what’s not varies from one part of Canada to another.

James Dubreuil owns four Popeye’s Supplements stores in Ontario selling protein, vitamins and a variety of other workout supplements. His Sarnia location closed last Friday because of staffing shortages due to COVID-19, but reopened this week.

Dubreuil says his stores are essential, according to both provincial and federal guidelines.

At present, his four locations are offering “curbside pickup” only, meaning customers must either call or email their orders and pay electronically or by credit card.

Dubreuil says there’s no contact between customers and staff at the stores and that he and his wife are also offering free delivery to people who are either self-isolating or quarantined.

“We don’t want to be part of the problem, we want to be part of the solution,” he said.

With respect to Ontario’s list of essential workplaces, Dubreuil said his stores qualify under two separate categories — the retail or wholesale of food and the sale of health supplies.

Some businesses in a ‘grey zone’

There are other businesses in Ontario that remain open whose primary operations don’t appear to fall under either provincial or federal guidelines of what’s essential during the pandemic. This includes fitness equipment and supply stores, arts and craft stores and sex shops.

The Adult Fun Superstore (AFN) in Ottawa remained open Friday despite the government’s order from earlier in the week telling non-essential businesses to close.

AFN’s owner, Shawn Dawson, told Global News he decided to keep the business open until Friday — just to fulfill existing orders — after contacting local sexual health officials who said they were unsure if the business qualified under the provincial rules pertaining to mental health and health-care providers.

Dawson says many of the store’s customers experience sexual addiction and other issues related to sexual health, including some people who are recovering from medical procedures and other mental health concerns.

In this way, Dawson said, he believes his business is similar to the LCBO or provincially run cannabis stores that have been allowed to stay open in order to prevent harm to those living with addiction. He said the store also sells condoms and other sexual health products that help keep people safe, which are essential, even during a pandemic.

Still, Dawson said, with the absence of certainty, he’s decided to close the store until COVID-19 is no longer an issue and until all his employees and customers feel comfortable returning.

“We really weren’t sure,” Dawson said.

On Friday, Premier Doug Ford was asked how his government came up with the list of essential services and workplaces.

He said the government consulted labour association leaders and the public service when compiling the list and that it was constantly being reviewed.

Ford also said the government maintains the power to add or remove businesses from the list, but he appreciates that some companies may fall into grey areas where it’s unclear if they can stay open.

“If people feel their business should be on there, we can review it,” Ford said. “If they feel companies shouldn’t be on there, we can take it off.”

Ford also said the government received more than 53,000 phone calls from businesses the day the list was released seeking clarification on the rules.

He didn’t, however, explain why specific types of businesses, such as fitness supply stores and pet spas, remain open during the pandemic.