Beginning this Saturday, April 3rd, Ontario will be in a four-week province-wide emergency break shutdown. Among other restrictions for the shutdown are:
- Prohibiting indoor organized public events and social gatherings, and limiting the capacity for outdoor gatherings to a five-person maximum — except for gatherings with members of the same household or gatherings of members of one household and one other person from another household who lives alone.
- Limits on in-person shopping, including a 50 per cent capacity limit for supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, indoor farmers' markets, other stores that primarily sell food and pharmacies, and a 25 per cent limit for all other retail including big box stores.
- No personal care services.
- No indoor and outdoor dining. Take out, delivery and drive thru options are still allowed.
- Prohibiting the use of facilities for indoor or outdoor sports and recreational fitness with very limited exceptions
- The closure of day camps
- Limiting capacity at weddings, funerals, and religious services to 15 per cent occupancy per room indoors, and to the number of people who can maintain two metres of physical distance outdoors. This does not include social gatherings associated with these services such as receptions, which are not permitted indoors and are limited to five people outdoors.
In order to continue supporting small businesses in Ontario, the Government has extended the deadline to apply to the Ontario Small Business Support Grant to April 7th, and have added a second round of payments to the program. All eligible businesses are encouraged to apply.
