January 31 is the first opening day in several weeks for businesses like restaurants and fitness facilities.
The majority of those businesses face a 50% capacity limit in the first step of the Ontario government’s three step reopening plan.
Josh Maveety the owner of UFIT Kingston a gym in the city’s west end says the capacity limits don’t impact his business to any real degree.
Maveety says the challenge to keeping his business going has been dealing with multiple shutdowns since the pandemic was declared.
Government subsidies only go so far, he says.
“We’re sitting here trying to scrape and stay alive, and thank you for your grants, but we still owe you the money,” said Maveety.
The Kingston Frontenacs, the city’s OHL franchise, will host four home games under the province’s first phase.
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Arenas like the Leon Centre where the Frontenacs play are currently limited to 50% capacity or 500 people whichever is less. The limit is a challenge for a team that has 1800 season ticket holders.
The club’s Assistant V.P. of Business Operations, Nicole Kemp, says they are essentially rationing their available seats among their season ticket holders.
“We’ve allocated one game per season ticket holder right now and we’ve divided up by sections so certain sections are allowed to each game,” said Kemp.
Movie theatres like Landmark Cinemas is facing a straight 50% capacity limit per screen currently. CEO Bill Walker says a lot of the work now is ensuring people feel comfortable to return to the theatre.
With mandated health protocols he hopes reserved seating helps people feel safer.
“You can see how many seats are sold and where people are seated and so you can get a sense of what that auditorium is going to look like when you arrive,” said Walker referring to the online service.
Walker says they plan to have times when capacity limits are still in effect even when those restrictions are lifted.
“When we were open with no capacity restrictions in Ontario, we were doing physically distanced showtimes Monday to Thursday before 6pm, so kind of all those matinee show times through the afternoon and early evening,” said Walker.
Capacity limits are expected to be eliminated when the provincial government moves to step three of the reopening plan on March 14, 2022.
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