Shuswap MLA questions timing of public health orders
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Shuswap MLA Greg Kyllo told a Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce town hall session he understands the frustration of business owners in the region when it comes to abrupt changes to public health orders (PHO).
“What I’m hearing from businesses, is that everybody wants to assist in recovery from COVID. The challenging piece is to make an announcement at one o’clock on a Monday that they have to shut down in 11 hours. [It] just doesn’t provide any certainty for both employees and businesses,” Kyllo, a three-term MLA, said.
Despite growing case numbers two weeks before the new rules were announced, Kyllo noted that messaging from the province was upbeat, providing optimism to bar and restaurant owners, and resulting in them ramping up inventories.
“It put them in a really tough spot, because they didn’t have the opportunity to actually utilize a lot of those consumables, adding to the losses,” Kyllo added. “That conversation was likely happening over the course of the weekend. The announcement should have been more timely, perhaps two or three days of advance notice, so those businesses could utilize much of the inventory they had built up and provide proper notification to their staff.”
