Town council in Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls is worried about the impact of the lockdown on its businesses.
So far, a restaurant and a store closed their doors in the past month because of the lockdown.
Mayor Norbert Dufresne says they outlined their concerns in a resolution passed by council this week.
“Now, it’s kind of coming to a head, you know. We survived 2020, but now 2021 is coming,” says Dufresne. “So, we’re all waiting for the vaccine, but businesses are starting to fold, and Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls is a lot of small businesses.”
The resolution calls on the government to among other things to:
• Increase consultations with communities and small businesses in the North to find realistic ways for supporting businesses throughout the lockdown;
• Revisit blanket-provincial measures to Covid-19 response;
• Allow small businesses to remain open to in-store sales, with limited capacity and increased safety measures;
• Allow accommodation-based operators to function on a risk-based, regionally appropriate model, with increased safety measures;
• Permit construction work on a risk-based, regionally appropriate model, with increased safety measures, especially in the North, where large infrastructure related to pandemic response and health care do not comprise the majority of projects; and,
• That provincial relief funding programs be broadened to better address the needs of tourism-based, seasonally-based and sole proprietor
industries.
Fort Frances Mayor June is supporting Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls with a letter of her own to the government.
She states a “one-size fits all funding formula and eligibility criteria does not meet the needs of all businesses in the north.”
(With files from Tim Davidson/89.5 The Lake)
