FULL LIST: Here’s The List Of Ontario Businesses Allowed To Reopen And When

Thursday May 14th, 2020, 1:47pm

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The Province of Ontario will be starting Stage 1 of reopening with some services opening this weekend and more businesses allowed to reopen next week.

The Ontario government announced the retailers, seasonal businesses and health and community service providers who will be permitted to open or expand their services on Tuesday, May 19th, 2020 at 12:01am, provided that the “general trend on health indicators continues to improve as part of the first stage of the government’s reopening framework.”

The province says workplaces opening as part of this stage are “well-positioned to put workplace safety measures in place” and get more people back to work, while “not overburdening public transit and other services.”

The government also announced additional seasonal services and activities will be permitted to open as early as Saturday May 16th, 2020 at 12:01am, in time for the Victoria Day long weekend, as they say “key public health indicators continue to show progress.”

“During the last several weeks, the people of Ontario have been called on to make incredible sacrifices to help us stop the spread of COVID-19, including staying home from work, closing down businesses and going without a regular paycheque,” said Premier Ford. “However, we are reopening even more of our businesses beginning this long weekend. We are taking a cautious, balanced approach to our economic reopening, to protect the health and safety of everyone.”

Ford said “businesses should open only if they are ready to do so” and as more people get back to work, the risk of flare-ups in the number of COVID-19 cases is real, he said.

The government and health and safety associations have released more than 90 safety guidance documents to assist employers in different industries, including construction, retail, facilities maintenance and manufacturing. As new sectors of the economy begin to reopen, the province says additional resources will be made available.

Saturday, May 16th, 2020:

Here’s the list of business able to open as of 12:01am on Saturday, May 16th, 2020:

Golf courses will be able to open, with clubhouses open only for washrooms and restaurants open only for take-out.
Marinas, boat clubs and public boat launches may open for recreational use.
Private parks and campgrounds may open to enable preparation for the season and to allow access for trailers and recreational vehicles whose owners have a full season contract.
Businesses that board animals, such as stables, may allow boarders to visit, care for or ride their animal.

Tuesday, May 19th, 2020:

Here’s the province’s full list of businesses allowed to reopen on Tuesday May 19th:

Construction

All construction to resume and essential workplace limits lifted
Includes land surveyors

Retail

In addition to retail operating online, or with curbside pickup and delivery, all retail can open under the following restrictions and guidelines:
- No indoor malls.
- Must have a street-front entrance (i.e., stores with dedicated street access/storefront).
- Open in-store by appointment and/or by limiting the number of people in the store at any one time. Retailers would need to restrict the number of customers per square metre — for example, one customer per 4 square metres (43 square feet) — to ensure physical distancing of 2 metres at all times.
- Only fitting rooms with doors would be used, not curtains, to facilitate disinfecting. Retailers would restrict use to every second fitting room at any one time to allow for cleaning after use and ensure physical distancing.
- For further guidance on this sector, please refer to resources to prevent COVID-19 in the workplace.

Vehicle dealerships and retailers

Vehicle dealerships and retailers, including:
- New and used car, truck, and motorcycle dealers
- Recreational vehicle (RV) dealers (e.g., campers, motor homes, trailers, travel trailers)
- Boat, watercraft and marine supply dealers
- Other vehicle dealers of motorized bicycles, golf carts, scooters, snowmobiles, ATVs, utility trailers, etc.
Prior to Stage 1, motor vehicles dealerships were restricted to appointments only.

Media operations

Office-based media operations involving equipment that does not allow for remote working. For example:
- Sound recording, such as production, distribution, publishing, studios.
- Film and television post-production, film and television animation studios.
- Publishing: periodical, book, directory, software, video games.
- Interactive digital media, such as computer systems design and related services (e.g., programming, video game design and development).

Media activities that can be completed while working remotely have been encouraged to continue during the Restart phase.
Filming or other on-site activities, especially those that require the gathering of workers, performers or others are not permitted to resume in Stage 1.

Scheduled surgeries (public and private facilities)

Non-emergency diagnostic imaging and surgeries in public hospitals, private hospitals and independent health facilities, clinics, and private practices to resume based on ability to meet specified pre-conditions including the MOH framework: A Measured Approach to Planning for Surgeries and Procedures During the COVID-19 Pandemic, contains clear criteria that must be met before hospitals can resume scheduled surgeries.
Scheduled surgical and procedural work to resume once “Directive #2 for Health Care Providers (Regulated Health Professionals or Persons who operate a Group Practice of Regulated Health Professionals)” is amended or revoked, which relies on hospitals meeting criteria outlined in A Measured Approach to Planning for Surgeries and Procedures During the COVID-19.

Health services

Allowing certain health and medical services to resume, such as in-person counselling and scheduled surgeries based on the ability to meet pre-specified conditions as outlined in A Measured Approach to Planning for Surgeries and Procedures During the COVID-19 Pandemic, as well as resuming professional services such as shifting Children’s Treatment Centres from virtual to in-person.
In-person counselling to resume including psychotherapy and other mental health and support services. Some of these services were available in-person for urgent needs. For example:
- Addiction counselling
- Crisis intervention
- Family counselling
- Offender rehabilitation
- Palliative care counselling
- Parenting services
- Rape crisis centres
- Refugee services

Community services

Libraries for pick-up or delivery

Outdoor recreational amenities

Marinas can resume recreational services
Pools will remain closed

Individual recreational sports

Outdoor recreational sports centres for sports not played in teams will open with limited access to facilities (e.g., no clubhouse, no change rooms, washrooms and emergency aid only). Examples of sports centres include:
- Tennis courts
- Rod and gun clubs
- Cycling tracks (including BMX)
- Horse riding facilities
Indoor rod and gun clubs and indoor golf driving ranges

Individual sports competitions without spectators

Professional and amateur sport activity for individual/single competitors, including training and competition conducted by a recognized Provincial Sport Organization, National Sport Organization, or recognized national Provincial training centres (e.g., Canadian Sport Institute Ontario) with return to play protocols in place and no spectators, except for an accompanying guardian for a person under the age of 18 years.
This includes indoor and outdoor non-team sport competitions that can be played under physical distancing measures. This includes:
- Water sports on lakes and outdoor bodies of water
- Racquet sports such as tennis, ping pong, badminton
- Animal-related sports such as dog racing, agility, horse racing
- Other sports such as: track and field, car and motorcycle racing, figure skating, fencing, rock climbing, gymnastics, etc.
Swimming pools will remain closed. As a result, water-based sports competitions are excluded if not conducted on lakes or outdoor bodies of water.
High-contact sports are not allowed even if they are non-team. These include sports where physical distancing cannot be practiced such as:
- Racquetball, squash, boxing, wrestling sports, martial arts, etc.

Professional services related to research and development

Professional services related to conducting research and experimental development in physical, engineering and life sciences including electronics, computers, chemistry, oceanography, geology, mathematics, physics, environmental, medicine, health, biology, botany, biotechnology, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, pharmacy, veterinary and other allied subjects. For example:
- Agriculture, food research, horticulture or botany, entomological, forestry, livestock, veterinary research and development laboratories.
- Bacteriological, biotechnology, chemical, nanobiotechnology, pharmacy, genetics, genomics, computational biology, research and development laboratories.
- Computer and related hardware, electronic, telecommunication research and development services.
- Geology, oceanographic, pollution research and development, and astronomical observatories.
- Mathematics research and development.
- Industrial research and development laboratories.
These examples are listed for Most if not all these services are already permitted under the “Research” section of the List of Essential Workplaces.

Emissions inspection facilities

All emissions inspection facilities for heavy diesel commercial motor vehicles, including mobile inspection facilities.

Veterinary services

Veterinary services can resume all services by appointment.

Animal services

Pet grooming services
Pet sitting services
Dog walking services
Pet training services
Training and provision of service animals
Effective May 16, 2020, businesses that board animals (e.g., stables) may allow boarders to visit, care for, or ride their animal

Indoor and outdoor household services

Private households could now employ workers on or about the premises in activities primarily concerned with the operation of the household such as:

- Domestic services: housekeepers, cooks, maids, butlers, personal affairs management, nanny services, babysitters, other domestic personnel, etc.
- Cleaning and maintenance service: house cleaning, indoor/outdoor painting, window cleaning, pool cleaning, general repairs.