Ontario moves to Step 2 Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Ontario announced this morning that it would move to Step 2 as of 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, June 30, 2021.

Under Step 2, retailers will have the following capacity restrictions:

• Grocery, pharmacy stores, discount and big box stores selling grocery, and other essential retailers see their capacity increase to 50% (which, is calculated by dividing unencumbered sales floor by 8m² or 86 sq ft);
• Non-essential retail stores (both with and without an external facing entrance) see their capacity move up to 25% (which, is calculated by dividing unencumbered sales floor by 16m² or 172 sq ft), and;
• Retail stores inside of a mall without an external facing entrance may open.

To calculate store occupancy, please use RCC’s updated store capacity calculator.

When originally announced, Step 3 was slated to begin 21 days after the preceding step and would see further increased capacity limits for retailers, though details remain vague. While the current timeline implies that Step 3 could occur around Wednesday, July 21, 2021, it is RCC’s expectation that Ontario is likely to move to Step 3 early, just like with each of the other steps.

Ontario’s “work from home except where necessary” clause remains in place in Step 2, meaning that head office staff cannot yet be broadly recalled to workplace settings.

Click here for the new regulation. This regulation will eventually be consolidated into O. Reg 263/20.