A local business owner is appealing to the province to release data justifying the shutdown of restaurants under its COVID-19 Response Framework.
President of Bad Dog Bar & Grill Jason Winter told Sue Storr on CHOK (103.9 FM, 1070 AM) Monday morning that since the start of the pandemic, they have not received a call from Lambton Public Health conducting contact tracing of a positive case at either of their two locations.
Winter sent a letter to Premier Doug Ford, MPP Bob Bailey and MP Marilyn Gladu after Sarnia-Lambton moved from Orange-Restrict to Red-Control with just three days notice.
"A lot of people and restaurants were a little upset about that, it was pretty quick," said Winter. "We had brought back some employees that had been off for the last two months and we had also, like everyone else, did a bigger beer order getting ready, it was moving along pretty quickly. There were other places I know that just had reopened. They had been closed for the two months and weren't even doing takeout and done big food orders, now are sitting on that inventory and throwing out food again."
At the red level, the number of patrons allowed in restaurants and bars dropped from 50 to 10 with no more than four people at a table.
Winter said he has no problem with public safety measures including masking and table distancing, but an 80 per cent reduction in dining room capacity is extreme.
"What we want to see at this point is if they can present some data," he said. "Say, okay this is where the cases are coming from, this is the threshold we are going on, this is the metre stick. Of the 2,000-plus cases in Sarnia-Lambton, what are the rates of contraction coming from restaurants?"
-With files from Sue Storr
