The Executive Director of the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association says he understands why the province ordered nightclubs and banquet halls to close.
However, Carl DeSantis says he was hoping these businesses in Kamloops would be allowed to stay open, given the low number of cases in the Interior.
“It is a huge financial setback and I’ll talk about the Blue Grotto for one example. He sunk a sizable amount of cash to make it as safe so that he could reopen for the first time since March, and now this is a huge step backwards for the business, huge step backwards for himself personally,” he said.
“To paint us with the same brush as the larger jurisdictions where the incidents of COVID are drastically increasing there, I think there’s an opportunity there to revisit that decision and allow some flexibility. We’re behaving ourselves overall here, we really are, and that is evident by the low numbers that you’ve seen throughout Kamloops.”
DeSantis did say that people in the province should be ashamed of the 429 cases that were reported over the Labour Day Long Weekend – the majority in the Lower Mainland.
“I want the province to continue moving forward and reducing the numbers of COVID, but that is clearly not the case,” DeSantis added. “They’ve been trending upwards for a while and over the Long Weekend, 429 new cases is completely unacceptable and I mean, it makes sense that some actions need to follow to try and turn this around.”
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Alliance of Beverage Licensees, Jeff Guignard, says he was in touch with the Premier’s Office yesterday, shortly before the announcement.
“They understand how frustrating and disappointing this revised order is for all of you who have been meeting or exceeding the current stringent public health protocols,” Guignard said in a statement to his members.
“The Premier’s Office also specifically thanked our industry for the considerable efforts to flatten the curve. They insisted that today’s order was a difficult decision made in the context of increasing cases and the increased resources spent on contact tracing of guests at licensed establishments.”
He says the understands the reason for the decision, but notes there are concerns that there may be unintended consequences by forcing more British Columbians to gather privately – which could lead to increased cases.
Private Party Concerns
Asked if she fears that closing nightclubs would lead to more private parties, Dr. Henry said the province will continue to keep issuing fines, especially to repeat offenders.
“Going to a nightclub, going to a bar, going to somebody’s home – close spaces with face-to-face encounters with people we don’t know … that’s a risk,” Henry said.
“We do know that there has been a move towards private parties, some of them quite large, that are now being broken up, and we do have ways of monitoring those and now we have a fine structure in place for those as well. It is trying to appeal to people’s better nature.”
Despite the spike in cases linked to these private events, she says B.C. remains lucky that overall community transmission remains low. She also noted that she feels restaurants remain safe especially as the industry has worked to implement safety plans.
“The restaurants are doing a super job. We know that sometimes they have been pushed, when we’ve heard of people wanting to go in big groups and there are restrictions in restaurants that are designed to make them safe,” Henry added.
“The people who are following those are doing well. It keeps the staff safe, and it keep everybody who is in the venue safe.”
And Henry did say the amended orders were issued as ‘a last resort.’
“We recognize that these venues have tried. We’ve made adjustments but there are still exposures happening,” she said.