The president of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce is describing the region not being permitted to enter Stage 2 of the province's COVID-19 reopening framework as “very disappointing.”
Rakesh Naidu says businesses are hurting and many are inching toward the point of no return.
"The longer it takes for businesses to reopen the more companies, unfortunately, will not be able to reopen and that's our biggest concern,” he says. “The good work that's been done by our community, by the health officials has kept the numbers low except for the outbreak that we had recently in the farms."
Naidu says he'd like to see the Windsor-Essex region broken up into sectors.
"We are such a big region and I don't see why we cannot have a localized measure put in place where we contain the areas with hot spots or spikes and open up the rest,” says Naidu. “That's something that we should look into and that could make a huge difference."
"Every day we hear from our members,” Naidu, adds. “We get phone calls and there are email messages. There are businesses that are very concerned about the situation and every day that we don't reopen it's adding to a huge amount of pressure for the businesses because the debt level keeps on rising."
On Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced seven more regions can move to Stage 2 which permits restaurant patios and salons to reopen — but Windsor-Essex did not make the list along with Peel and Toronto.
— With files from AM800's Rob Hindi