The Downtown Tillsonburg BIA Board of Management would like to express our concern regarding the unilateral action of the Southwestern Public Health Unit with the Implementation of the 50% capacity limits put in place in the Town of Tillsonburg.  This letter is written to each of you as you have a role to play in terms of either setting, influencing or enforcing measures related to government policies, programs and support initiatives.

Many, if not all, of the Downtown Tillsonburg business members have been hard hit by the previous set of lockdowns and capacity restrictions. They have paused, adapted and pivoted how they do business, taking on additional financial burdens often without knowing what the end result may be.

As these businesses have adjusted their practices and brought in PPE suggested by Southwestern Public Health, they continue to be penalized by these mandates. There has not been any data shared that small businesses are the places that COVID is being transmitted. It would appear from anecdotal information that transmission is happening in school settings, not in small businesses. There have been no known incidences of outbreak in Personal Care Services or the Hospitality Industry in the BIA zone.

Many of our restaurant/hospitality sector members have already scheduled staff and ordered perishable inventory in preparation for one of the busiest times of the year. This gave them no ability to respond to the new public health measures and no time to react to the implementation of letter of instruction for reduced capacity limitations. Also, there is no government programs available for these businesses as far as compensation. Similarly, Personal Care Businesses are entering their busiest time of year with the same capacity limitations. They are now forced to spend valuable time contacting clients and rescheduling during a time of year that is already scheduled extremely tight.

Here is what we, as a BIA, have done:

Communicate safe practices/protocols throughout the pandemic, educating members on the most up to date information and best practises.
Regular and informal visits to businesses in the core area, ensuring compliance with protocols. We are happy to report a near flawless execution of PPE, impermeable barriers, contact tracing forms and general sanitation practices.

Weekly dissemination of critical public health information as it becomes available
Providing low cost PPE and sanitizer to our membership
Implementation of strong “buy local” marketing campaigns.

Downtown communities thrive and survive off of one another - people come to the core to EAT SHOP LIVE & EXPLORE. Any one of these missing pieces impacts the rest (dividing the business community). These new capacity limits will undoubtedly force some to leave town to shop, eat and create economic activity elsewhere.

We are aware that case counts have actually stablized or are going down in the Town of Tillsonburg.   While this situation remains fluid, we do believe that the downtown business community is not where the transmission of COVID-19 is primarily occurring.

Assistance required

At this time the Downtown Tillsonburg BIA pleads on behalf of it's membership of more than 250 businesses and community to strongly reconsider these restrictions prior to their implementation on December 2, 2021.  As previously mentioned we do not feel that our business community should suffer once again, nor do we believe that the facts support such an action.  Should this measure not be able to be retracted then we ask for the following immediate assistance:

What programs or supports will be made available to compensate for these capacity limitations?
What specific measures are being taken to use alternative forms of marketing and communications to drive the remaining minority of unvaccinated persons to take action?
Can we have a seat at the table and be consulted prior to any additional public health measures being contemplated or implemented?

Summary

We acknowledge our responsibility to be a conduit to build a better Tillsonburg community and to assist all of our partners to ensure that a healthy public is our number one priority.  We are committed to working with SWPH to ensure that COVID-19 is defeated.

On behalf of our BIA Board of Management, we look forward to your responses.