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By Josh Hall

risk of a fine "on the backburner"

Innisfail salon owner set to defy public health orders, open Tuesday

Jan 11, 2021 | 6:09 PM

An Innisfail hair salon owner says the business will open its doors in defiance of public health orders on Jan. 12.

Natalie Klein says Bladez 2 Fadez is booked for several days since sharing her decision on social media last week.

A barber for 26 years, Klein says she’s built her entire livelihood around opening a barbershop, which she finally did last summer with help from CERB payments.

She tells rdnewsNOW that after the recent four-week-long restrictions were extended for two more weeks, her decision to open was an easy one.

“Our shop is always very sanitary, we’ve followed all protocols, and I knew that Kenney was probably going to extend another two weeks. I also contacted the government about the Alberta Small and Medium Enterprise Relaunch Grant,” she explains.

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“Their response to me when I asked about an application that I had filled out was that they were on Christmas holidays and so my application from Dec. 12 still hadn’t been looked at. So I’ve received no provincial government funding and that was the last straw because this is my sole livelihood.”

Klein admits it’s been tough seeing other businesses such as big box stores remain open while personal services stay shuttered despite low numbers of documented COVID-19 transmissions related to the sector.

The Alberta Government has warned that the Public Health Act will be enforced strongly as long as restrictions are in place, but Klein isn’t concerned.

“The risk of a fine is on the backburner because my bills are already piling up and I risk losing my barbershop, my lifelong dream. I risk losing that in the next two to four weeks because there is no help from the Alberta Government,” she says. “I’ve done my research and there’s too many people suffering, closing their businesses, going into foreclosure, and for what? I don’t understand.”

If enforcement shows up to her business when she opens Tuesday, Klein will accept the fine and says she has lawyers who will fight it. She doubles down, saying she won’t close if given an order to do so.

“I’m supporting them because I think they’re a little nervous about opening up against the recommendations of the provincial government. They need to take care of their livelihood and they feel they can take all the precautions big box stores can take,” says Innisfail town councillor Glen Carritt.

“We feel all businesses are essential. They’ve done their part and they’ve complied with the 28-day lockdown. Everybody feels there’s going to be no end to this, and quite frankly, these people are going broke. They have to start taking care of themselves. I encourage more people to do the same.”

Carritt and Klein agree that the actions of provincial politicians who travelled over the holidays has only served as encouragement for them to go forward with openings against restrictions.

“That showed that they’ve lost credibility in the narrative, so to speak, and that people are fed up with the hypocrisy,” Carritt suggests. “Open it for everybody. The reason they could travel is that proper precautions were put in place, so the reason we should be able to open businesses is because there are proper precautions.”

Klein says mental health also plays a role in her decision to open.

“There’s a lot of people suffering right now. Mental health is declining. At the end of the day, it comes down to this being a personal service. It’s very important to someone’s mental health.”

On Saturday, Sundre resident Jason Page created a Facebook group called “Open for Survival” to show support for businesses that have been “unfairly forced to close down.”

Page says it is key to support those small businesses because they’re the same ones that support community events and foster civic spirit.

“Let’s start focusing on a solution,” says Page. “Hopefully somebody does have the courage to stand up, open their business, and say ‘I’m between a rock and hard place, so I’ve got to open and try to stay alive until a vaccine comes out, until the government changes its tune, or for some kind of relief to come through.”

According to the AHS enforcement orders website, just one Central Zone business, a hair salon in Red Deer, has been caught defying provincial public health orders as of Jan. 9.

As part of expanded mandatory measures that came into effect Dec. 13, personal and wellness services, including hair salons, nail salons, massage, tattoos and piercing were ordered to close for a minimum of four weeks through January 9. Premier Jason Kenney announced last week that the measures were being extended through at least January 21.

I know this is just a brutally difficult time for those personal services businesses, many of them are small owner-operator businesses where it’s often the only source of income in that household and everything is tied up in those small businesses. And I also acknowledge that so many of those businesses, hairdressers, estheticians and so many others, they have taken great precaution to operate safely throughout COVID,” Kenney said Monday.

“If we had not taken further measures in November-December it’s clear to me we would’ve had not just 950 people in hospital and approaching 200 in ICUs, but that could have doubled and doubled again, which would have completely overwhelmed the healthcare system.

“Our government’s approach has been to use restrictions as a last and limited measure because we do recognize the damaging impact they have,” Kenney noted, also adding, “My heart truly goes out to the folks in the personal services businesses.”