Ontario is allowing some seasonal businesses to reopen May 4. This includes lawn care and landscaping services, garden centres and nurseries for curbside pickup and delivery, and community gardens among others.
“As the trends continue downward, as we continue seeing a reduction in community spread, we are getting closer and closer to opening things back up,” says Ontario Premier Doug Ford in a COVID-19 live update today.
As Ford explains, these workplaces can operate safety based on physical distancing measures, contact-free services and isolated outdoor work.
“As we all know garden centers are very seasonal,” Ford says in response to a question. “As the trend goes down, hopefully there will be a time in the near future people can go in and look at their annuals or perennials and pick them out. But right now, through the advice of the chief medical officer, they just feel a little better, a little safer [with] curbside pickup.”
This is in line with an emailed response from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs last week.
UPDATE: In a televised update on May 4, Ford said there will be “good news” for garden centres coming this week. This was in response to complaints brought up around unfair competition with big box stores which are allowed to open their garden centre departments to consumers.
Operating guidelines are available here, but not all guidelines will apply until COVID restrictions are fully lifted.
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