Opinion
Ontario shifted into Step 3 of re-opening last week but not everybody noticed. Shoppers at one of the big food stores in town had to be told not to line up at the distancing spots before checking out. “You no longer have to line up, go to any cashier that's open,” one of the staff repeated every few minutes as customers insisted on queueing up at the front of the store.
Hair salons and non-essential businesses were allowed to open a few weeks ago and they've been busy. But the most monumental change is that restaurants are now allowed to serve customers at inside tables without regard to capacity limitations provided distancing protocols are maintained. Night clubs and strip clubs, however, are limited to 25 percent capacity.
Here are some other changes as a result of the province moving into Step 3: Indoor gatherings and public events are limited to 25 people, while outdoor events cannot exceed 100 attendees. Sports and fitness centres can now operate at 50 percent capacity, as can galleries, casinos, fairs, concert venues, amusement parks, cinemas and theatres, up to a maximum of 1,000 people. Last but not least, indoor visits to care and retirement homes are now permitted along with overnight absences.
On the whole, patios are busier but they are not packed or overflowing. Things may be slowly returning to pre-pandemic status, but subjectively speaking, there is a sense of pervasive timidity about most folks - people seem reluctant to throw themselves back into the social currents where they once frolicked.
At least we can now look back on the last 16 months and squirm a bit thinking about some of the excesses and absurdities we've created. In March of 2020, we were battling an unknown enemy and no one knew what to expect. Fairly quickly, people divided into two camps - those that took the virus seriously and had no issue with stringent rules and enforcement, and those that were less cautious and even dismissive of mainstream strategies and tactics.
One of the first things most municipalities did was close the playgrounds and drape caution tape around the swing sets and monkey bars. In retrospect this was over-the-top and unnecessary, but the prevailing wisdom at the time was that surface contamination was a big factor, and that playgrounds should be off-limits because it's impossible to continuously sanitize the equipment.
Most store owners had to deal with rude customers who did not like the new protocols. But neither were some retailers diplomatic when it came to explaining the new rules. One building materials dealer set up a table outside where an employee slathered the client's hands with sanitizer. Inside the store, customers had to follow a maze-like circuitry where they were greeted with a sign that said, “You touch it, You buy it.”
If we can believe philosopher Frederick Neitzsche, the COVID-19 that didn't kill us has made us stronger, or has it? Actually, it's more like death from a thousand cuts. No one is talking about a time when we'll be able to toss the masks away. Rather, there is a suggestion that the already immunized may have to get a third booster shot to keep the new variants at bay.
Yes, live music is starting to happen but even that can be fraught with difficulty for the promoter and/or pub owner. According to Acton resident Sue MacAskill Walker: “It's really complicated when you read the rules. Sometimes events/venues fall under two categories with conflicting rules.”
But is it really fair to ask restaurant owners to do more? They are already tasked with so much, including the collection of contact information and the enforcement of mask and distance protocols. Might the next step be checking customers' vaccination records? “I'm sure some will and some will not and both will have their supporters. I don't get the sense that the Ontario government is going to legislate it in anyway - at least for public events,” added MacAskill Walker
Meanwhile the mask by-law remains in place and we will keep muddling forward, hoping things will get better. We might have entered Step 3 last week, but on the surface at least, not a whole lot seems different. Except that we no longer have to line up on spots at the front of the grocery store.
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