Ontario’s province-wide shutdown order

Moment’s ago, Ontario announced a province-wide shutdown as of 12:01am Saturday, April 3, 2021 through to May 1, 2021 (a 28 day period).

RCC is happy to report that months of sharing information around capacity best practices with the Ontario Government has paid off. As a result, retailers deemed to be non-essential are allowed to remain open throughout the shutdown at a 25% capacity limit. For essential retailers, the capacity limit is 50%. The definition of essential retail has not changed which means that hardware, pet food and garden centres continue to be classified as non-essential.

This shutdown will see restaurants (indoor and patio dinning) closed as well as a delay to the expected reopening of personal care services in the grey zone such as hair and nail salons.

Also of note, Ontario schools will remain open and the April break is still scheduled to proceed. RCC understands that the new shutdown order will see day camps closed and so employees with children should plan to have their children at home for the week of April 12, 2021.

At the time of sending this member notice, an update to the regulation was not yet posted. It will eventually be consolidated into O. Reg 82/20 and should be posted as O. Reg 26/21.

Please connect Sebastian Prins, Director of Government Relations (Ontario) with any additional questions at sprins@retailcouncil.org.