By Sheldon Spackman

Shop Local

Chamber deems new health measures a “devastating blow” to local businesses

Dec 9, 2020 | 4:28 PM

New COVID-19 health measures announced by the Alberta government on Tuesday are being met with great concern by the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber officials say they had been optimistic that restrictions announced in November would be enough to get local businesses safely through the critical holiday shopping season.

However, given the rapid increase in case numbers throughout the province, including in central Alberta, the additional health measures came as no surprise.

“The impact will be another devastating blow to our businesses, many of whom were already against the ropes working to adapt to the previous measures and heavily invested into things like plexiglass barriers and PPE,” remarks Chamber CEO Rick More.

“This pandemic is the greatest challenge facing the local business community and is resulting in a distressing number of business closures, while online based mega-businesses like Amazon are seeing record sales.”

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On Tuesday, the province announced mandatory restrictions, effective Dec. 13.

Retail services must reduce customer capacity to 15 per cent of fire code occupancy (not including staff), including for shopping malls and their common areas and individual stores.

Curbside pickup, delivery and online services are encouraged, while food courts will be open for grab and go only.

All restaurants, pubs, bars, lounges and cafes will be closed to in-person service as well, so take out, curbside pickup and delivery services will only be allowed.

“We are encouraging the public to shop and order local whenever possible,” said More. “If you want to find a silver lining in all this, the pandemic has truly demonstrated just how important the small business is to a vibrant and thriving community.

“It’s encouraging to read developments about the vaccine,” he added. “But the path forward is full of challenges and we hope our members utilize the various provincial and federal programs to the maximum extent so as many businesses as possible survive this.”