Some Ontario businesses reopening after struggling to survive long-running lockdown

Many Ontario businesses are preparing to reopen with some limitations after a frustrating period of ever-changing pandemic restrictions affecting retailers and services that were deemed non-essential.

As the province moves into the first stage of its three-stage reopening plan on Friday, someowners say they'vehad to takean innovativeapproach to survive and to serve their customers in personagain.

Debrah Menashy, owner of Loft Cycle Club Inc. in Torontowill be starting outdoor spin classes, which will be limitedto just nine riders and take placein a parking lot near the city'sBroadview and Danforth avenues.

"Every time I go to add it up, we have to buy something else," she said, including the cost of renting a parking lot and setting up a storage container for the bikes, as well as buying wireless headphones, "I'm just hoping that people show up and it's worth it."

"[It's been] almost 16 months of not being able to operate, we're just so excited to be outside to do something," she said as she tested the equipment this week.

Scott MacKillop, owner of Barely Bruised Books in Ottawa, is also ready toreopenand recalledthe manysacrifices hemade during the lockdowns that wereimposedto slow the spread of COVID-19.

The storehad to cancel itsopen-mic poetry night, live music, an Indigenous book club called All Nations and its philosophygroup meetings.

One of thebiggest hassles has been getting a new website up and running to sell the store's used books online. MacKillopsaid he's spent more than $33,000 trying to stay in business,without generatingmuch revenue in return.

"I spent all my savings," he said.

Bars and restaurants in Toronto and other Ontario hot spots experienced a bit of whiplash in late March when patios were allowed to reopenonly to be forcedto close again just days later.

WATCH |Ontario moves to get ahead of COVID-19 variantsas more businesses reopen:

Ontario moves to get ahead of latest COVID-19 threat as more businesses reopen

3 years ago

Duration 2:05

More Ontario business owners have reopened after working hard and laying out cash, while the province is moving up second vaccine doses in COVID-19 variant hot spots.

The first stage in the province's reopening plan means non-essential retail will be able to reopen at 15 per cent capacity. The plan also comes with otherconditions:

• Only stores with street access can welcome customers inside.
• Stores inside malls have to stay closed.
• Outdoor patio service will be allowed for up to four people per table, unless they're from the same household.
• Group exercise and day camps for children can also begin again.

Dan Kelly, president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, is calling on people to put pressure on the provincial government to "immediately open other low-risk businesses," such as hair and nail salons.

Those businesses won't be allowed to reopen until Step 2 of the plan, which is supposed to go into effect in early July.

In a tweet Thursday, Kelly said the province should also allow shops in malls to open, as other jurisdictions in Canada have done. He also said that "the world's longest lockdown needs a faster end."

At leastone medical expert says businesses may now be able to escape the trend ofone lockdown after another.

"The big difference is that we have vaccines," saidepidemiologist AshleighTuite from the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health. "We don't have a fully vaccinated population yet, but we do have a lot of people with at least one dose of vaccine.

"And that's a really important mitigation tool. It helps reduce transmission."