As Manitoba’s provincial government considers re-opening restaurants and gyms at 25 per cent capacity next week, one Manitoba public official is criticizing the lock down measures and calling for the re-opening of all businesses.
Winkler Mayor Martin Harder says previous shutdown measures have been unfair to local retailers, “You can’t tell me that you are locking down … by leaving the big box stores open and shutting down small ones, because that hasn’t worked,” Harder told Global News.
Harder believes the province should allow all businesses to re-open, do a better job of determining where COVID-19 is spreading, and just shut down where necessary.
As well, Harder says the provincial government’s gathering limits have been too restrictive. “We should have the ability to gather in homes and the ability to to have some semblance of opening the churches,” he said, “because we believe there’s a whole different way of doing this rather than what the government has done.”
The Winkler mayor also wants the province to allow families to visit their loved ones in care homes. “The province is keeping you away from loved ones who are dying in a care home or a hospital bed. They should create conditions that will allow you can go and see them at least, but they’re not.”
Above everything else, Harder says our inability to say goodbye to loved ones in person is going to leave a generational mark on our society.